Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----because our systems picked it up and we responded to it very robustly. Anybody who has been involved with our special investigations unit, as it was at the time, knows that it is pretty robust in terms of how it gets to the bottom of things. It works with and takes advice from the Garda on a regular basis. People were interviewed under caution. We followed up on this as to the detail. There was a full investigation by both the Department and the company concerned, and there was an explanation as to why this happened - which I do not want to go into, although I can brief the Deputy on it if he wishes - and the circumstances that led to what was effectively the use of a quota that had been assigned somewhere else in a separate part of the country. We made it very clear at the time that this was totally unacceptable, regardless of the explanation as to why it was happening. There was an explanation, but it was not acceptable to me. That is why a full superlevy fine was applied. Also, we referred this file to the Office of the Chief State Solicitor because I felt it was appropriate to do that in order that we could have an independent assessment of this overall case. The advice I got-----

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