Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

If we went around surreptitiously getting agents to buy land on our behalf, I would hazard a guess - I hear what the Deputies say and that is their modus operandi - that the minute we did that and it was found out that this was for a prison, this House would be in convulsions from people coming in stating that we acted in a sly and underhand way, and were not being open and transparent with the public.

On the issue of the Mountjoy site, that was not purchased by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform or the prison service. It was purchased by the OPW in the context that in moving the entire Mountjoy complex out to Thornton Hall there would be a major redevelopment in the inner city Mountjoy location.

See this speech in context