Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Yes, and it was sought from a valuer. Somebody could have asked for the university's valuation in a pub because we are told that it was verbal. We have established that. That was said today and was said previously. That valuation could have been two fellas standing beside each other in the local public house, where one of them could have said, "I think it is worth so much". We do not know where that valuation came from. We know that it was assessed as a derelict site and that it is 0.3 ha, which is a very confined site, possibly with some restrictions in being able to get large trucks in and out of that area because of low bridges. We know there was no business case and that the governing authority was told that the significant advantages of this site over the Opera site were both the potential for future development and the ability to quickly deliver a fully functioning building. An engineer's report would not have been needed because if somebody had walked into building and looked upwards, they would have seen the suspended ceilings from the 1970s with asbestos in them.

An engineer's report would not be needed. I do not want to use the term, "some gob-----". I will not finish a foul word but the witnesses know what the second half of it is. Anybody could have walked in and seen that there was asbestos in the building, but that was not done. We are also told that an estimate was given to the governing authority on the night the decision had to be made in a hurry that a new building would cost €27 million, based on the scale of what was envisaged. The word used was a "cleared" site. Is that not correct?

We know there is no engineer's report. We know the asbestos was not identified. We know that the talk of two extra floors was a load of cock and bull. I have only seen a photograph of the building but the next time I am in Limerick, I will go around and see it. It is not possible to just throw up two storeys on top of a building that was designed in the 1970s to carry one storey in one part of the building and two storeys in another. The university did seek a valuation. A valuation was got from Tom Crosse of GVM Auctioneers. They said it was worth no more than €5 million. Is that correct?