Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The key point is that it was misrepresented as something different. We went through this area. It was 20 homes. All they had to do, as the Deputy said, was look at the auctioneer’s window or, as I said, check on the computer for the house prices in the area on any of the auctioneer sites. They would have found out that houses were selling for half the price the university paid. It was bumped up to be something else with cock and bull about rental payments that did not exist and stage payments. I accept there were stage payments, but it is mystifying why the word “rental” was put into it. The only reason it could be put there was that completely misleading information was given. What has happened is not acceptable.

The thing that puzzles me about it is that so many people different people looked at this. I have read the information supplied. For the life of me, I cannot see why somebody did not ask if these houses were on a housing estate. After a five-minute check, anybody would have been able to say, “Hang on here a second, these are selling for half that price.” It is a puzzle to me why it happened. We can talk about people who were sponsors and who were driving it, but it is bigger than that. It is a puzzle how a project like this could get going.

We could go around it all day. That is the point where it went wrong. As somebody said earlier, this was bog standard or very standard procedure that any couple going out to look at a house this evening would do. If they were going out to buy a house at Rhebogue, Terenure in Dublin or Portlaoise, they would do the very same thing. I cannot get my head around why that basic procedure was not done by anybody to say, ”Stop.”

I see Mr. Kelly wants to come in.