Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach if he will comment on the finding that the possible underpayment on the price paid is less than the total cost of producing a report on an organisation (details supplied) which has taken seven years to complete. [46089/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I arranged for the report of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) Commission of Investigation to be published and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 7 September 2022.

Among the many findings made by the Commission in the report, it determined that the Bank might, subject to certain assumptions which are set out in the report, have recovered up to €8.7 million more than the €44.3 million it agreed to accept in the sale.

From the time of its establishment to the end of July 2022, the Commission cost €11.9 million approximately, excluding third party legal costs that have been incurred but not yet paid, which will be a matter for the Commission to determine at the end of its investigation.

In its Seventh Interim Report in February 2020, the Commission estimated that the cost of the Siteserv investigation will be from €12 - €14.5 million. This estimate assumed the investigation would be completed by the end of 2020, not end October 2022 as is now the case, and excluded costs or delays associated with possible judicial review hearings.

The Commission also acknowledged that it involved a substantial degree of uncertainty regarding the amount of costs actually recoverable by the parties before it and assumed its Legal Costs Guidelines are not successfully challenged.

The Commission’s most recent Interim Report, dated July 2022, does not provide any update on the €12 - €14.5 million estimate.

The final cost will become clear when cost orders are made by the Commission, and when any legal challenges to these cost orders are resolved.