Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will start where Deputy Nash finished. I thank Ms Moylan for attending. We have all said on many occasions, and I am glad it has been agreed under the proposal from Deputy Donohoe and the Chairman, that the other key players, the missing in action, should be invited to come before this committee. The Secretary General was correct in her opening remarks when she said it is impossible to get a full picture until some of the key stakeholders appear before us.

To counter that, Ms Moylan has given evidence to this committee which was frank and honest but she highlighted that she herself was a key stakeholder. She was a fully participating member of the board that actively partook in the discussions and the decision-making process that resulted in the debacle that was the Irish Glass Bottle Company site.

Much of the detail has been covered by Deputy Donohoe but I want to go back on some of the points. I apologise if there is any repetition but I am not clear on some points, and they all originate from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. The first one is the conclusion in section 3 on the case for investment. It states:

The Executive advised the Board of the Authority that the joint venture bid for the Irish Glass Bottle site would be made in an over-heated commercial property market. While an assessment of the level of investment, benefits and risks of the project was presented to the Board during the decision-making process, a detailed analysis of those factors does not seem to have been carried out by the Board or the management of the Authority.

What I read from that is that Ms Moylan had staff in the authority advising, or at least cautioning, against this venture and presenting analysis to the board suggesting that this venture needed to be re-examined, reconsidered or possibly should not proceed. Ms Moylan was a board member who partook in the decision to proceed. Can she explain to me what that environment was like? What sort of advice was she being given? Did the executive advise the board not to proceed or did they at least advise Ms Moylan that there was an overheated commercial property market?