Mr. John McKeon:

Absolutely. We have not seen the detailed legal advice obtained by the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, which I think is the entity to which the Deputy is referring. It is a valuable advocacy group and representative body. We have not seen the detailed legal advice but we have seen a summary. It reflects what Senator Higgins previously brought to our attention, and that certainly was discussed with the legal advisers. The view is that the situation is clear. There are a couple of points I wish to make on it. I do not want to get into the detail of what I understand it to be, partly because I am outside the curtilage of Leinster House. Just because a service is social in nature does not mean it is not also of financial or economic interest. Those are the two streams within the EU procurement rules. In a situation where there are other providers available in the market - this is not just the Irish market; it is the EU market - that could provide similar services, then the services have to be tendered. Effectively, that is the situation. We did consider that advice but there is no way of getting around this, as far as we can see. That is certainly the advice of the Attorney General.