Mr. Seamus O'Loughlin:

The matter is twofold. My function had a budget deficit because our financial requirements were not included in the submission to the regulator. This created tensions, and legitimate requests I was making were not being progressed and were being blocked. Staff on the ground were coming looking for tools and equipment to comply with legislation and their requests were stopping at my desk. In addition, we have 108 supervisor areas and there was friction previously about the tools and equipment my function supplies. I therefore appointed a representative to each of the 108 areas. I used to contact those people regularly to ask them whether they had any issues with tools and equipment. I also asked them whether they had any safety or environmental concerns, and information started coming back at me. I have a broad level of experience across all the major types of work we carry out so I was able to validate or dismiss issues that came back from front-line staff. I think the people further up the line just got overwhelmed by the number of issues I was bringing to their table.