Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I want to begin by directing a comment to Mr. McLoughlin regarding the comments made earlier to him by Deputy Fleming. I completely and utterly disassociate myself from them. Mr. McLoughlin is in here to do a job and to respond to questions from members and he should not be subject to that kind of language. I want to put that on record. Despite the start the meeting got off to, everyone has still had an opportunity to put questions and Mr. McLoughlin has done his best to give answers within the parameters he is operating. Perhaps the meeting could have got off to a different start given the way everyone has discussed issues with Mr. McLoughlin, but leaving that aside, the earlier comments were appalling and I want to separate myself from them completely.

I want to focus on getting a grasp on the figures at present. I will use the framework of the July 2012 performance report that Mr. McLoughlin shared with us. I want to refer to a number of the pages in turn and get a grasp on the figures at this time in early October. I want to return to a theme my colleague, Deputy O'Donnell, pursued regarding the €74 million in respect of invoices for consultants. I have a basic question on that. Have the consultants been paid that €74 million?