Mr. Martin Shanahan:

We have tight legal agreements for everything we pay to a company. We require a parent company guarantee in almost all cases. It is not just the Irish subsidiary that is on the hook but also its parent body, wherever that may be, in the US or elsewhere in Europe. The legal agreement sets out very clearly what at any point in time is due back to the IDA, should the company fail to fulfil the conditions of the agreement. We recoup the money that is left over. Obviously, if a company is in liquidation or there is no recourse to the overall body, it depends on the liquidator and then the percentages and so on. We chase everything through to the end. Even in instances where that has happened - thankfully they are rare enough - the company has often given huge economic value to the State over the long period it has been here.