Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister invites me to agree with him that whatever about the preferred bidder, he had other options. He never said anything of the kind. He never communicated to this House that there was any doubt about the preferred bidder. When the same preferred bidder pulled out from housing projects, I asked the Minister repeatedly if he had satisfied himself about its capacity to deliver. All the Minister did was give me lectures about how he would not be seen on the same side of the street as a developer. I do not know what the Minister has against developers, but it was a very odd thing to say.

I want to ask the Minister a question and would be greatly pleased if he would do me the courtesy of listening to it. He has told the House most of the 30% increase in cost is due to the cost of finance. If this bidder had a difficulty with the cost of finance, how does the Minister propose to tell the House that another preferred bidder would not have exactly the same difficulty with the cost of sourcing money?

Did I hear the Minister say that the difference between the original price and the price the preferred bidder was now trying to extract was hundreds of millions of euro? That is what I wrote down, namely, that the difference is hundreds of millions of euro. How much will this project cost us? I would like the Minister to clarify that.

I again put the question to the Minister that has been put by my colleagues. Is it not time to re-think whether the notion of the American-style super prison is what we require? It is especially the case that we need to re-think it if one is talking about the difference between the price in 2007 and now being hundred of millions of euro.

How can the Minister ask this House, having regard to electronic voting, PPARS and the collapse of Thornton Hall, to have confidence in the Government? If this Government was tasked with building a duck pond, the ducks would drown.

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