Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe:

We understand that, and it is not unreasonable to ask how many staff are required. It must be very frustrating not to get an answer, but I can give an example of the reality of the situation. We have a vacancy in a senior position in the organisation since last September. The recruitment process began as soon as that vacancy arose and it will not be possible to fill that until the end of next month. One is looking at a nine-month delay in recruiting one person. The regulatory business in Ireland in both the public sector and private sector has blossomed or exploded, as it were, over the past few years. When we are looking for investigative staff because those are the crucial people - they are not the only people, but they are the crucial people - we are looking for expertise in a very limited pool, and other people are fishing in this pool. To be perfectly honest, we cannot compete with the private sector.