Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is precisely because of the fact that in managing the Prison Service estate, where 19 acres were sold in Shanganagh for the purpose of funding the purchase of 150 acres at Thornton Hall, that we were able to proceed with a prison there. Legislation was introduced and enacted in this House for this particular project. What is clearly the case now is that because of the increased cost of financing under the PPP system, in this particular instance, it is not possible for the Government to proceed because we want to get value for money and, therefore, want to ensure we go back out to the market for-----

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