Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 27 November 2025

Public Accounts Committee

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2024
Chapter 5 - Development of a Proposed National Science Centre
Chapter 6 - The OPW's Management of Office Accommodation

2:00 am

Mr. John Conlon:

I do not agree with that. In 2021 and 2022, we made efforts to buy the estate. As I have always said, it has always been our objective to reunite the estate. The efforts we made in 2021 did not succeed. In 2022, we were outbid on the market even though we made an effort for a strategic purchase then by making a bid which was considerably in excess of the then agricultural market value of the lands. We came back again a third time and we achieved the objective. We made a strategic bid in 2022 to achieve those but were just outbid in the market. Property negotiations and market developments are not easy. People can be outbid in these processes and we were. That is a fact.

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