Ms Marie-Claire Maney:

The challenge is to cover the entire case base. I am very aware that there is great political interest in the top ten, so the Committee of Public Accounts has asked for the top ten. However, there are the bottom ten. My challenge is to ensure that the individual of less than €500 gets the same treatment and gets through the system the same as some organisation at €1.6 billion which is taking a lot of resources.

That is the challenge and that is why I have suggested a different structure that is tiered with a cadre to deal with smaller cases, a middle tier and one for the very large cases. I am concerned that these large cases will just eat up resources. That is where the political pressure is and that is what people are interested in but I am interested in the whole case base. I have to be fair to absolutely everybody. We are trying our best to get these cases through the system in order that we reduce the quantum under appeal but that has a cost. It has a cost to people perhaps at the lower end who have a smaller appeal. That is what I am trying to cover. That is the challenge and it is very difficult. I make no bones about it. The Chair is absolutely right. He has hit the nail on the head.