Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It will talk about the Valuation Office. The Valuation Office is a State body and all State assets are a matter of concern to it, including the assets of Bord na gCon and the Department of Education and Skills. It was not working for the Department, it was working for the State. Whether that asset transferred for €2 million, €22 million or €42 million is a matter of indifference to the Valuation Office because the land was staying in State ownership, either with the Greyhound Board or the Department of Education and Skills. Its setting of a price is not the issue. The issue is why the Department agreed to proceed with the payment of €23 million. It is very coincidental. As the Comptroller and Auditor General remarked it was sufficient to allow the company, Dublin Greyhound Sports Association Limited discharge its residential liability.

I am suggesting that next Thursday, when the Department of Education and Skills is here with the Higher Education Authority, HEA, we must allocate a separate portion of the meeting, maybe before we bring in the HEA, whether it is 30 minutes or an hour, to discuss this payment out of its budget, if members are agreeable. It is fishy to say the least that the Department of Education and Skills came up with €23 million to solve the greyhound board's problem. This is arising strictly out of the minutes of last week's meeting.