Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It must strike the Minister as unusual that a State body, the county council, entered into an agreement with the Department on this project in which the local authority gave a commitment that it would cover the unforeseen costs that would arise, given that we have found out subsequently that the building in question has major structural problems and would have needed major investment for the project to have gone ahead. Perhaps the Minister would address that as I did ask it in the first part of the question.

The second issue is the role of the Taoiseach. Has the Taoiseach discussed this with the Minister? Did the Department of the Taoiseach discuss it with her? Did his Department discuss it with her Department? We understand that the imprimaturof the Taoiseach was fully behind this project before all those cost-benefit analyses were carried out.

Does it make sense for the materials which were created while a well-pensioned former public representative was in the employment of the State to be the subject of a tax relief in the future? Should the Taoiseach be able to apply for a tax relief in the future for an archive that he has produced? Is it not time to get rid of the tax relief for archives from public representatives?

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