Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I will start off on the question of ownership. It is more than two and a half years since the Mulvey agreement was signed off on and every time the Minister or his predecessor has been asked a question since then about what was happening the reply has been that finalisation of the legal agreement is imminent. That has been the reply for the past two and a half years and yet it has not happened. What is the difficulty in finalising that agreement?

Related to that, the Minister said in his opening statement that it is "my preference ... to own the land ...". Why is it the Minister's preference to own the land? What difference does he think that would make?