Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

It is truly scandalous and outrageous that we should be presented with a scheme such as this without being offered any costings. I understand the development in Dubai to which I referred relates to the purchase of the island of Ireland in the world of islands complex. We are not just paying for speculation in places such as the fringe around the M50. We are not just paying for unsold apartment blocks on the banks of the Shannon or in Cork and Kerry. Rather, we are paying for speculation in London, Dubai, Chicago and New York. The website of the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, details his travels to various locations around the world to deliver lectures, for a fee, on how he built the Celtic tiger. Perhaps he is dropping in to these construction developments in foreign lands, the cost of which has been loaded on the backs of another generation of young people, their children and grandchildren.

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