Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Murphy for his comprehensive report, as always. My questions have been touched on already but I will try to drill down a bit further into the issues of the GNI verification and the whole globalisation process. Ireland contributes €2.2 billion to the EU. Mr. Murphy said that he cannot predict the likely outcome of this process but why does he think the process was set up in the first place? What were the reasons for commissioning this investigation? Does Mr. Murphy think that Ireland, as a member state, has anything to fear from the process? Was Ireland first and foremost in the thoughts of those who came up with this process initially? I am interested to learn a little bit more about this whole GNI verification process and why it was established.

Mr. Murphy also touched on the difficulties with auditing the Brexit adjustment reserve in that he will not be able to see the expenditure for three years. There has, however, been a huge increase in expenditure generally by the EU and unprecedented measures have been taken because of Covid-19 and so on. Mr. Murphy has much work ahead of him in respect of the recovery and resilience facility, RRF, the SURE financial support and the Brexit adjustment reserve. Is he satisfied he has all the processes in place and resources to do that, and he is on top of what is about to land on his desk, so to speak?

With regard to errors and irregularities across the board in all schemes and across the EU generally, which I do not believe Mr. Murphy made reference to or was referenced in some of the contributions, where does Ireland as a member state fit into the table? Are we average, above or below average in the number of errors and irregularities?