Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question.

In 1990, it was decided to build new Government offices in Wexford. At the time, the OPW owned two sites in the town. One of these was the existing social welfare offices in Anne Street. The other property was in King Street. Following discussions with Wexford Corporation, the Anne Street location emerged as the preferred option for the new Government offices. The development of a new site for a number of Departments, including the Department of Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners and the Probation Service, required the addition of two adjacent properties to allow sufficient area for the new building. One of these sites was owned by Wexford Corporation and was given the OPW in exchange for the OPW site at King Street. The other property was the site of the old County Hotel which, I understand, was acquired directly by Wexford Corporation and then sold to the OPW for €145,000. The commissioners are not aware of irregularities pertaining to this matter and are happy, as has always been the case, to make their records available.

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