John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a farce that you enter into a confidentiality agreement knowing that within 12 months the information will be in the public domain. How can you enter into a confidentiality agreement when you know you cannot have confidentiality? You are breaking the law and telling them lies, because in 12 months' time it will be in the public domain. Not you, but whoever gets involved in it. Something has to change around that in terms of the State and its approach to all of this. It happens with different Departments and agencies and it is not acceptable. It has to change. Perhaps it is a recommendation the committee might consider in due course. That is the first point.

Second, can Mr. Meaney not tell us, in terms of the three cases, at the end of all of this, without breaching confidentiality on any one case, how much it sets you back and how you deal with it? What arrangement are you making in your accounts to deal with this figure and can you give us the overall figure?