David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I find that answer almost unbelievable. It is not about a bidding war.

One puts something on the open market and there are potential bidders and there is what is called competitive tension in order to get the best possible return for an organisation. That is the purpose, it is not to create a bidding war or to encourage one but it is done to get the best possible return. The reason I asked this is because there could be a perception that the Department of education buying this is a sort of state bailout of an organisation that has clearly failed. The Department of education comes in and writes a cheque for €15 million, wipes out a lot of the debt, every one is happy and, as usual, no one is held to account for the failures, mismanagement, poor judgment and everything else. There is no point in asking that of the witnesses because they obviously will not agree, but it is a question that needs to be put. When asking that question, I want to hear from the Secretary General of the Department of education as to why the Department was interested in these lands, who alerted it to it, what are its plans, what is it paying for it and all those issues. I want to hear from the Department too and maybe we can come back to that at another time. Deputy Cullinane can come back to that.