Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

If the Taoiseach keeps this up, he can be his own warm-up man for the jamboree at the weekend.

Yesterday I asked, and the Taoiseach refused to answer, how many tens of millions of euro of taxpayers' money will be bestowed on the lads from the tent at the Galway Races to build private hospitals on the public grounds of our existing hospitals. This morning, I would like to raise another public expenditure decision, related to the subject matter of a parliamentary question on 22 February, where the questioners were advised that it was expected to identify the preferred bidder for the prison at Thornton Hall by the end of February 2007. Was the preferred bidder identified by the end of February, as pledged, and will the Taoiseach tell us who it is?

How does he propose to protect taxpayers' money in the contract, given the record on this site? The Comptroller and Auditor General, in his report for the year 2005, published in September 2006, deplored the manner of purchase of the lands at Thornton Hall and said that at least twice the market value was paid for them. He went on to say: "In the circumstances, a well managed, confidential, third party approach might have allowed the Prison Service to procure suitable land at a much lower price than was paid for the land at Thornton."

Mr. Purcell, although working in the abstract, turned out to be right. At the weekend we learned that the adjacent site, which was inspected by the perceptive Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, at the time as a possible alternative, was sold recently for €100,000 per acre, whereas the Minister paid €200,000 per acre for the site at Thornton Hall. This is the man who lectures those on this side of the House on economics and hard decision taking. They say a fool and his money is easily parted but the Minister is no fool and the money he was parted from was taxpayers' money doled out in the most foolish purchase because, as the Comptroller and Auditor General said, they saw him coming. Imagine putting it around that one had €30 million to spend and asking if anyone could come up with a site. What does he expect in those circumstances? This is the most profligate waste of taxpayers' money by a blundering Minister that rivals——

See this speech in context