Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish to get the Minister to focus once again on the figures. If the difference is hundreds of millions, and the difference is 30%, then the full cost of the project must be more than three times hundreds of millions. I do not think the public or the taxpayer has ever heard that figure before today. It seems to me to be the best argument for rethinking the entire project. I put it to the Minister again, now that the collapse has taken place, is it not an opportunity to go back to the drawing board? If the Minister has 400 places coming on-stream then there is a breathing space for us to work this out. It is unthinkable that we should have to pay the kind of money that is now being talked about to fund this project. Regardless of whatever happens to the site in the future, the Prison Service acquired it. The Minister's Green Party colleagues in Government opposed the purchase bitterly at the time. Perhaps they would have some use for it but for us to pile hundreds of millions on top of it-----

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