The Government established an escrow account to hold the Apple fine money of €14.3 billion. The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and the Comptroller and Auditor General estimate that the account will lose €70 million per annum because of negative interest rates due to the way it was set up. Since the Government's plan is to hand back the money to Apple, is it its intention that the taxpayer should pony up the additional €70 million per annum currently being lost as a result of the way the account was set up? The latter is a sum which could be used to build seven schools or 350 houses every year, on top of the €3.9 million in set-up fees for the account and whatever consultancy fees are ongoing.

As I understand it, Apple put €14 billion or so into the escrow account. The account is currently losing money because of negative interest rates. It may well gain money should interest rates become positive again. We do not know what will happen. Nobody can predict the future because we do not know when the court's decision will be made or what will happen to interest rates in the meantime. We can only guess; we cannot know for certain. If the money goes back to Apple, as the Deputy suggests it might, then it will lose the other money to which he refers.