Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is KPMG. The target here - not that there is a target - is not KPMG. It is paying itself and doing its work as it is allowed to do. Effectively, however, it has been let off. It is paying itself from recoveries, work-outs and various things. Those fees are effectively box-ticking exercises for the Department of Finance. I worry that there is no mechanism to challenge these fees and that the level of oversight which would be available in a standard liquidation of, let us say Marc MacSharry Limited, through a committee of inspection and other means, does not apply in this case, yet it is ultimately the taxpayers' money.

So far, to the end of 2016, the fees total €225 million including VAT. It would be reasonable to assume that they will head towards €300 million by the end of 2017. If one applies a per annum rate into the future, it is reasonable to assume, if there are five to ten years left to run in this, that the fees would be heading very close to €1 billion, notwithstanding the 175 legal cases, two of which are the large and high profile Quinn cases. If any of those cases were to be lost we would looking at many hundreds of millions of euro or - pick a number - who knows?

Auto-pilot is a phrase that comes to mind in the context of how this is happening. Applying the basic accountancy duty of care to clients, I do not think that the taxpayer can be confident that this is being run correctly and with the level of oversight that is required. I know the practice is not to bring the Minister in except in extraordinary circumstances. I know we had him in on NAMA. I feel this is one of those occasions on which the Minister ought to be invited, along with the Secretary General and the liquidators themselves. We should certainly hear Mr. McCarthy's views as well.

This has been going on under the covers. Perhaps everything is done correctly and fantastically well for the least money possible, but perhaps not. In any event, given the amounts of money involved so far, the likely amounts going forward and the length of time involved, it would be reckless and foolish in the extreme if we did not involve ourselves in some way. If that requires legislation or an amendment to the 2013 Act then this committee should recommend that, following the questioning of the people I have outlined.