Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Chairman referenced some of the madness of the Celtic tiger era. One of the areas of madness that we have not moved away from is the exorbitant fees that are often paid by State agencies. It is suggested, in this piece of correspondence, that the total fees incurred relating to the liquidation and wrap-up of this process could be €327 million. That appears to be astronomical. I wonder, in the first instance, if the Comptroller and Auditor General could provide an analysis as to whether, when going through any of these accounts, he has appraised them as to whether or not the proper checks and balances are in place. Further to Deputy Murphy's proposals, which I support entirely, I propose that we also ask the Department to outline precisely what protection mechanisms are in place to ensure that all this expenditure is necessary and that there are proper provisions in place to ensure that these costs are minimised. It is hard to use the word "minimised" when we are talking about sums running into the hundreds of millions of euro, but nevertheless.