Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand. I have two further questions. It is easy to ask this question but, retrospectively, is there regret in the Defence Forces about the Gulfstream IV inventory items they had in stock, which potentially had a value greater than the €53,000 or whatever proportion of the €53,000 that might have been attributable to them, and whether the Defence Forces should have, in making reasonable efforts to achieve the ministerial directive which was to get the best possible value, which included the parts, withheld those from disposal with the jet for the purpose of attempting to realise their greater value? Let us be honest, we are talking about €53,000. It is not a vast amount of money. If the €53,000 figure was not there and the parts were sold with the aircraft, I doubt that the committee would have spent a great deal of time querying the point. It would have queried the value of the disposal but not necessarily the €53,000, because it is a very small amount. However, if it was €20,000 and the Defence Forces made €100,000 on new, unused parts because there is a market for them in the Gulfstream IV market, retrospectively, and particularly when the Comptroller and Auditor General's report came across his desk, did Mr. Quinn not sit back and say that perhaps they should have considered this a little more carefully?