Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I notice the Minister was careful in his choice of words when he said that this purchase "will prove to have been a prudent investment". Like me, the Minister has been a practising solicitor. The 150 acres at Thornton comprised a farm. I referred to it at the time as the dearest farm in Europe. Surely the Minister is not standing over the purchase of farmland at €200,000 per acre. Of all the incidents of squander-mania that we had at the time, this was one of the largest excesses. I accept that the current Minister was not involved in the purchase, but would he now accept that this was crazy money for a place that was zoned as agricultural land and used as a farm?

With regard to the €30 million that was spent - the equivalent of €200,000 per acre - and a further €10 million that has been spent on providing access, if this project were not to proceed and if the Minister was doing an audit of State property, what value would he place on this property? What is the current value? Would he get €20,000 per acre for it today?

See this speech in context