Mr. John Sheahan:

The legacy debt that might be with some publicly owned sites was mentioned earlier. If memory serves me right we had a model when the National Asset Management Agency was set up many years ago. I remember our authority availed of derogation on debt for land that we gave back to NAMA at the time. Something like that might need to be done again.

Deputy Gould referred to the local authority in Cork city. Some local authorities got caught up in those heady days of the Celtic tiger. When they went to Departments money was awash and they were asked about the depth of their ambition and aspiration when it came to buying houses. They all fell into negative equity afterwards. There is an issue but there is no way out of it really except for the State to pick up the tab. I trust that addresses the points made by Deputy Gould.