Mr. Robert Watt:

I think we did. I think it was understood that the cost of trying to retrieve the money would have been greater than the likely recoverable rate. That is a decision that bodies have to make at times. Be they public bodies or private ones, they have to make commercial decisions about debts. Unfortunately, the debts in question were bad ones that we needed to write off. It was a controversial system, as it was not a service that people were buying willingly off the State. They were being forcibly quarantined. The circumstances were different than would normally have been the case, but I believe the right decision has been taken.