Professor Brigid Laffan:

It was placed on the agenda in the context that there may be a stamp duty liability that had not been foreseen. Due to the controversy around the KPMG report on the Dunnes Stores transaction, I referred that issue immediately to the audit and risk committee, which did an excellent job gathering material. Then we had the Niamh O'Donoghue report. So we did not allow Rhebogue to fester at all.

The Deputy is absolutely right about the cost of housing. I had never heard of Rhebogue before but I insisted on being driven to see the said houses. I am not a property valuer and I do not know much about property but I knew immediately, with no specialist expertise whatsoever, that the concern that we had overpaid was probably correct. It is also fair to say that the then chief finance officer was given a list of property prices in the Rhebogue area at the time and chose not to do anything about it.