Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I just want to follow up on the previous round of questions. The Minister should know the answers to these questions because he has decided to appeal a Commission ruling which states that we are owed €13 billion plus interest, money this State could do with. I want to know, and I suspect many in the wider public want to know, why the Minister decided to pay millions of euro to lawyers to ensure we do not get €13 billion when an EU Commissioner came here this week and explained in very simple and convincing terms why that €13 billion is owed to this State. It is entirely reasonable to ask on what basis the Minister has made that decision because she made a very simple argument to the effect it is not credible to allocate profits to a company that has no real existence, no economic activity, no employees and no office. That is the basis of her case. We are owed an explanation for why the Minister thinks there is some problem with that because it is self-evident that these companies did not have an economic existence, yet Revenue thought it acceptable to allocate and record profits in a company that has no real existence and the Minister is willing to go to court to defend that decision and say no to €13 billion. Can he please explain that to us?