Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

There is a site in Cork called the Good Shepherd Convent. That site has been flipped several times by developers and speculators in the last 25 years. It is unbelievable. At what stage do we call a halt to speculators flipping properties? That was owned by UCC. It was flipped then to a developer. That developer then went into NAMA. That was sold on after NAMA. Then it was sold again. That person came in and got planning permission and then flipped it again. We have a situation where there are huge issues with the site because it was a former industrial school. From what we gathered, there are probably the remains of people buried at that site. There is a huge piece of work that has to go on there. That site has been flipped. Just to add to it, witnesses will know Cork itself. They have seen North Main Street. Cork City Council has come in and made a compulsory purchase order, CPO, on North Main Street. Some people are sitting on sites. If we walk down the road from where we are here, there are derelict sites all over the place. People are sitting on them. Developers are sitting on them. Not all of them, but some of them.