Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

——the units that were constructed in Castleforbes, where the Department paid €4.5 million or €4.6 million to the local authority to purchase those apartments. We have been told that the reason the docklands development authority is not releasing them — this is over an 18-month period — is that it did not want them to be sold at such a high price and it was waiting for them to be reduced. Now we discover they have not been even completed and yet the capital subsidy has been requested from the Minister and has been paid to the local authority, but the docklands development authority will not release them. Therefore, we have been told mistruths on this issue.

I also have serious questions about the propriety of some payments which were drawn down, obviously without the Minister's knowledge, from his Department for social housing that was constructed by various developers under agreements with the docklands development authority. This involved sums in excess of €50 million, where capital funding payments were made by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for social housing where an agreement had been made on the gasometer site, which is a 27-acre site that was in the ownership of the docklands development authority. Of course, the agreement was made with the developer that the 20% social housing, when constructed, would be transferred without charge to the docklands development authority, but it still appears to have drawn down the capital subsidy from the Department. Has there been double payments in this respect and what has happened to the money that has been drawn down, I would regard, wrongly? Has it been used, as I have heard, to defray interest payments on the €127 million of the 26% share of the worthless Irish Glass Bottle site on which it must pay interest?

Have the reports addressed these additional issues. If they have not, I want the Minister to address them. I can give him what further information I have on these matters.

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