Mr. Pat Smyth:

That is an important question, and one that the Comptroller and Auditor General has looked at extensively in the past. The total legal bill for 2020 was more than €30 million. Mr. Gloster pointed out earlier that around half of that relates to guardians ad litemand the associated guardianad litem costs. In respect of our own costs, we have a full procurement process.

In real terms, when we go through that procurement is quite an extensive process. We are just finalising the current round of that. Those procurement agreements last between three and four years and are fixed-price agreements which do not really expand as work expands. It is effectively for the work for Tusla in particular regions. Obviously, there are exceptions, but that is tightly managed and is a process on which we have done significant work over the past seven years to make sure it is there. There is a lot of control around that expenditure.