Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the witness and I will let him give all those explanations, subject to the Acting Chairman. I want to establish facts here. Foras na Gaeilge moved from two buildings into a premises on Amiens Street. In addition Áisíneacht Dáileacháin Leabhar, ÁIS, moved to Dunshaughlin. Those movements involved cost. It moved into a premises where the previous tenant was paying just over €100,000, and it is paying €593,000. I want to establish the facts. There was a cost involved for ÁIS and Raidió Na Life moving. Was the Department aware of all this? The Department was monitoring this. Was it aware that the rent was €593,000? Did it give permission before any lease was signed? Was it aware that there were two agreements involved, one for rent and one which tied the refurbishment costs into the rent, which seems very unusual? The figure of €593,000 was to be paid for the first 15 years and for the next 15 years €63,000 a year would be taken off that for refurbishment costs at four quarterly repayments. It seems an extraordinary way to do business.

I mention learnings from Solas, and we will come to what the Department's monitoring is in regard to the Irish Film Board and so on, but what is its monitoring structure? Who is in charge, who has monitored this move and who has looked at value for money?