Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There was mention of the audits of public private partnerships. One particular public private partnership, Carillion, in the UK, went below the waterline with very serious consequences for us in this country and brought down a number of construction companies in the public area leaving us with an obvious issue. Was the Court of Auditors consulted or involved in any way or fashion? Does the company come under the remit of the Court of Auditors? Could it come under that remit or is it specifically excluded? I note the company straddled more than one country, and not only Northern Ireland but the South here as well.

The other matter is that Mr. Sven Giegold MEP has a case on illegal state aid in relation to taxation running in the European courts at present. Taxation happens to be excluded from the control of the Commission but a way has been found to come in, as it were, under the radar, in this particular case. I do not want Mr. Murphy to comment on the politics of it. The question being raised is whether or not foreign direct investors headquartered in this country should attribute their taxes to this country or to the individual countries in which the profits were made. I have a strong view about that but it is not for today.