Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Recall the day when its delegates appeared before us. Their happy attitude, based on their understanding that this bailout was effectively coming anyway, raised questions about what it was that people understood was really happening. There was no transparency in the process.

What galls me is that the Department of Education and Skills wrote the cheque. Did the Department get value for money? We all have constituencies, and I have several schools on my books for which I am trying to get sites acquired. The Department has come back with reams of stuff to the effect that this or that site is not value for money, but those amounts pale into insignificance compared with Harold's Cross. I would like to know how consistently the Department is applying its methodology if one deal can be justified as being value for money when the smaller projects that we are dealing with are not. It would shine a light on the situation.