Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

A different controversial site, at Thornton, cost €200,000 an acre. That was an extraordinary increase in land values. The Minister of State is basically celebrating driving up land values at 53 locations around Ireland. It is great for the landowners, the speculators, auctioneers and the people handling the legal deals because they are all on percentage cuts. What about the young couple trying to buy a house in an area or the local business person who is trying to compete with the prices that the Minister of State and his friends are artificially driving up? He is telling the House, in effect, that he is proud of inflating property values because he is mismanaging the decentralisation process so abjectly.

How can he justify the movement of only 150 civil servants? Only 100 have gone so far and 50 more may go by the end of the year. By the end of next year, he has just told the House, 1,000 may have shifted at a total cost of up to €40 million. Where is value for money for the poor old taxpayer in this?

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