Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach made a couple of references to the prudence of the financial arrangements for Thornton Hall and he explained how it was purchased from the sale of the land in Shanganagh. I know the land in Shanganagh, it is in my constituency. There was a prison there for juvenile boys and the Government closed it down although it is not the kind of facility that deserved to be closed down, especially in these times. The Taoiseach should stop pretending that there has been a big saving to the State in this regard. The land was sold to the local authority. It is one arm of the public purse selling to another. The Taoiseach should not pretend there were big savings on the purchase of Thornton Hall.

On the discontinuation of the arrangement with the preferred bidder, why was that suddenly brought to a halt when only a couple of weeks ago the – I was going to say the Taoiseach, he probably has aspirations in that direction – Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform told us the negotiations were at an advanced stage. Twelve months ago to the day, one of the principals involved in the consortium pulled out of the PPP arrangement for urban renewal in Dublin. I recall raising the issue with the Taoiseach at that time. My colleagues, Deputies Costello, Shortall and Upton raised with the Government at that time the implications for Thornton Hall. The Taoiseach told us everything was fine. It was flagged well in advance that there was a problem with the project yet it has come suddenly to a halt.

The Taoiseach has told us a lot about the process by which the decision was arrived at but I want to know what is now going to happen with Thornton Hall. He told us he is going to build something on the site.

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