Mr. John O'Brien:

Basically, the review body is completely independent. It issued its report in September 2007. The report was extremely detailed, ran to 220 to 230 pages and covered 13 different categories of staff, including those working in local authorities, the Judiciary, the fire services, public officials and so on. Shortly after that, the Government made the decision to pay the award in full. The Department of Finance sanctioned the award. Shortly afterwards, I think it was April of the following year, it was formally sanctioned with new salary scales. They were submitted to the Department of Health and Children, and that is where the blockage occurred, from our point of view. The question we are asking is whether civil servants have the power to overrule a decision of Government and not pay the awards. Second, according to correspondence, there was a clear attempt to alter the awards that were granted to HSE officials downwards. Is the Secretary General allowed to do that? We have come to that conclusion that he is not. Otherwise, if the Civil Service has that power to overrule the Government, it is our view that that raises very serious issues for the administration of government.