Mr. Damien Flynn:

All divisions received a circular about the availability of the BAR. The criteria were set out and those divisions were asked to engage with stakeholders in that regard. We would have got proposals from certain stakeholders proposing expenditure for schemes that were outside the window of eligibility for the BAR. In some cases, no Brexit impact could be identified or isolated to justify access to the BAR and no measure to address the impact was available. For example, some stakeholders suggested things around currency and exchange rate fluctuations, additional costs and impact costs. When we analysed those claims, it was not clear they were directly related to Brexit. An analysis was done of how eligible they would be for the BAR, for which there are strict criteria. There were challenges around other issues that were going on in the markets generally. The Covid-19 pandemic also affected certain things, as did the war in Ukraine. There were many multifaceted issues in that regard. Isolating the Brexit concern and then identifying the specific action to address it was the challenge. That was the type of analysis done in respect of different stakeholders as they submitted ideas or potential areas where they felt there was a direct Brexit impact. When we analysed some of those claims, the direct Brexit impact was hard to isolate and identify.