Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach says the Government is getting out of the PPP arrangement for the Thornton Hall project because of concerns about value for money. These concerns about value for money on this project are coming very late. I suggest the Taoiseach is now desperately playing catch-up on the value for money issue.

Just three weeks ago, on 22 April, my colleagues, Deputies Pat Rabbitte and Mary Upton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, about this project. Deputy Upton's question asked specifically if the Minister was satisfied about the capacity of the preferred bidder to deliver this project. The Minister told her negotiations with the preferred bidder were then at an advanced stage. A few weeks later, we are told the Irish Prison Service has discontinued that arrangement for reasons of value for money.

This side of the House has been telling the Government since this project was initiated that there were questions about value for money thereon. When we raised it in 2005, for example, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. McDowell, told us, "I am confident that in five or seven years, when the full campus at Thornton Hall is completed, the public will look back on these days and be grateful for the foresight and leadership the Government has shown".

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