Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

That is what the Department did given the constraints it had, rather than going surreptitiously to buy a site, getting it perhaps for less, and then announcing to the public that it was going to be the site of a prison. It was open and upfront and, because of that, the people who owned the site knew exactly who was buying it.

The Deputy is right that I was not involved but the project team looked at this as one of 30 sites.

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