James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious of the time and I have to ask other questions.

I wish to develop an understanding of the acquisition of property. I am from Youghal and I am sure the Deputy is aware that the former Quality Hotel in Redbarn was acquired by a private company which is now providing one of the largest centres in the country, outside of Citywest in Dublin, if not the largest. I wish to understand how buildings such as that were identified by operators for purchasing. How did the communication work between the Department and those operators when it came to identifying what was appropriate? That is important for all of us because we are now looking at a situation where small nursing homes may wish to close down and move into this area. It will become much more common, to judge by recent commentary in the media. The public needs to understand how this works. It is essentially important that people have an understanding of what is going on because politicians such as me, who are in government, have been kept completely in the dark about this, which has made it impossible for us to communicate with our constituents about it. People have considerable concerns.