Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

What is under investigation here is a €119 million issue at Siteserv. By the looks of the figures that have been provided by the Taoiseach, the actual cost of investigating that issue could end up being close to €119 million. The figure of €30 million is certainly well short and the other figure of €70 million that has been mentioned is closer to the mark. The commission spent €4,000 on bringing a banking expert from Thailand and more than €1,500 was spent on tissues. I find it hard to get my head around that. We are investigating the activities of a golden circle and it seems the investigation itself is just serving to contrast the lives of the investigators and the legal people with the ordinary taxpayer, who has been fleeced.

I would like the Taoiseach to comment on the issue of third-party legal costs. I know he is not in a position to say exactly what they will be as that is to be determined at the end of the investigation but it strikes me that the third-party legal costs will not be on the low side. They will not be small; they will be significant. Might we end up with a situation where investigating an issue relating to €119 million ends up costing an amount not a million miles short of that?

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