Mr. Michael Sheahan:

I am at fault for that misunderstanding about the legal basis for closing the plant. When I was before the Committee of Public Accounts, I was obviously warned by my legal colleagues not to go into the legal basis as to why the plant was closed down. When I was being questioned, I made the point that it had not been closed because of welfare issues within the plant, which is the case. At the time, the legal notice was still within the 14-day period during which it could be appealed so that is why I was warned not to get into that. I can confirm that the legal basis on which the plant was closed related to welfare and traceability issues that were highlighted in the programme. I wrote to the Committee of Public Accounts to clarify that point because I could see from reading the transcript, I could see that it was not clear. I was being hesitant in answering the question but in my hesitation, I did not explain the thing very clearly. It was very definitely to do with welfare and traceability. For the avoidance of doubt, as I mentioned earlier, I have never seen anything like the sickening welfare stuff we saw on the programme and I have seen a lot of bad things. I have not met anybody since who has seen anything as bad as that. It was unbelievable.