Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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I understand it is a matter of treaty law. My point is while the British stated they definitely would not pay it within the timeframe, they also opened a wider debate on how it is calculated. I appreciate it was reached through negotiation. The reason I ask is that I questioned the Minister previously on how our EU contributions are calculated and the fact that they are based on GNI. I appreciate this is better than calculating them on GDP but a big issue is raised with regard to us making an additional contribution based on redomiciled plcs here. In 2011, our contribution to European budget was €45 million, in 2010 it was €40 million and in 2009 it was €15 million as a result of redomiciled plcs. If the debate were opened up, we do not know where it would end. Is the Irish position that the debate is settled in terms of how the calculation is done and we do not want to open it up, as Prime Minister Cameron has suggested it should be because it penalises those countries which are doing better?