Mr. Des Carville:

I will not comment on that. We have never commented on the value of the assets. The liquidator's job is to get the best price it can. As I may have said before the PAC in private session, because the assets are based in Ukraine, which obviously has its own massive challenges, as does Russia, the valuation will be a fraction of what it once would have been. That goes without saying. I know the liquidators will do their best to maximise the value for the taxpayer in relation to those assets. On the Deputy's other point on the costs of liquidation, I could not agree more. It is an expensive process to go through.

That is why, in 2014, the Department asked and the Minister directed the liquidators to produce a report every year on what the fees were. What we tried to do in that report, and I believe we did so successfully, was to be very transparent on the different work streams and the costs associated with each of the work streams. This was in order that the public and the Oireachtas could get a good sense of where the money was going and why it was being spent the way it was.

We also commissioned a report by RSM a few years ago, which is publicly available. It looked at the value-for-money aspects of the special liquidation. I accept the Deputy's point regarding the C and AG, for example. As he is aware, it is not legislated for.