Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

Prospect Hill is an example, as the Deputy has pointed out. It was sold in 2021. We acquired it in 2010 and the loans associated with that. As far as we were concerned, that was a fine apartment scheme. There were no issues with it. Dublin City Council came in and bought around 50 units out of the scheme and we were happy to facilitate that. We appointed receivers in 2012 or 2013, and about a year after that, Dublin City Council identified serious remediation issues in relation to the 50 units it acquired. I remember the chief executive of Dublin City Council ringing me personally at the time and saying, "We bought the 50 units from you, there are serious issues here, and I think you need to get the receivers to look at the remaining units because I am concerned about this." The receiver engaged people and it was agreed that a major remediation programme would be required. The apartments had to be evacuated. A fire safety officer deemed them not safe. Over a number of years, to satisfy the fire office, we had to spend €10 million remediating that apartment block.

When those apartments were remediated, I rang the chief executive of Dublin City Council back and said they were all remediated. I said the receiver was going to put them on the market for sale but that I would give him first dibs and I could arrange for the receiver to sell them directly to him at market value if he was interested. He went away to think about it and rang me back and said he had talked to his colleagues and they were not interested in buying any more since they had 50 there and that was enough. I am paraphrasing what he said. I did offer them. I told the receiver that Dublin City Council was not interested in them so it could put them on the open market. They were put on the open market and ultimately they were bought by somebody who acquired-----