Ms Rosemary Collier:

I will break it into two parts. The Deputy had a question on our approach to the acquisition of heritage properties or lands and our process around that. My colleague Ms Morrison, who works on the estates side, has a property advisory service. We have professionals in the property valuation section who deal with assessing any property that comes to the market that we may have an interest in. For example, the Deputy mentioned Dowth, which was offered on the open market in the same way that the lands at Castletown were ultimately offered. Immediately, our portfolio planners and valuers are involved in the assessment of what is offered on the open market and they work to generate valuations and deal with the negotiation process. Offers are then made through the auctioneer or the vendor, whichever happens to be the case.

In the case of Castletown, there was a closing date and people had to put in best bids. With Dowth, interested parties continued to bid. A final offer was accepted in respect of Dowth. We were not involved in the property acquisition in Kerry. To be clear, it was the National Parks and Wildlife Service that was directly involved in procuring the lands at Connor Pass, Mount Brandon and Inch.

In our property advisory service, we have a team of professional valuers and property portfolio planners who are property professionals. They do all of that work. I assure the Deputy that there was nothing unusual about it. This is the normal way in which we proceed with getting valuations, making bids and, hopefully, securing whatever it is that we are trying to secure. In the Castletown instance, we were outbid, as the Deputy knows.