Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Affordable Homes Partnership served notice on the Department to join it in the process, and the Department objected because there was a stamp duty issue. The judge says that the commissioners attended a meeting with the Department on 28 September, and the Department changed its position, for the reason that the Affordable Homes Partnership had agreed to provide an indemnity relating to any potential stamp duty liability.

This is how it appears to me. One State body, the Affordable Homes Partnership, was having an argument with another State body, the Office of Public Works, regarding the issue of who would be liable for stamp duty. I believe the Department has some type of exemption that might not have applied to them.

The Chief State Solicitor was involved, and Eversheds, which acted on behalf of the one State body, joined the OPW in proceedings. All this wrangling went on and on, and at the end of the day the taxpayer paid €14 million over and above what the site was valued at its highest peak, because of the way the process was managed. We know the background. The houses are fine, people are living in them - and I hope they are good houses - and we are all happy with that. It is a question of how the case was managed such that the developer ended up getting an extra €14 million over and above his highest expectation. A lot of this was because of the way the various State bodies dragged it along and did not come to an agreement much earlier because they were having their argy-bargy among themselves. Can the witnesses see what I am saying? The judge said that the OPW changed its position once it was satisfied about the stamp duty.