Mr. Ray O'Driscoll:

In many of the 11 cases the company was approached by businesses or business people in the region looking to acquire the properties for their business development or employment creation purposes. When that arose the executives would evaluate the request and look at the business proposal behind it. We should bear in mind that during this time the company had a regional development remit. They would evaluate the employment opportunities that might result from these requests. If they believed the business case was worth evaluating they would request an external evaluation to be carried out by an independent expert. Assuming they were happy with the valuation advised by the independent expert, when the valuation was submitted they would put the given price to the potential buyer. If they could sell the property at that valuation point or above, they would recommend it to the senior team in Shannon Development for approval. Once that was approved it would go to the board for final approval.