Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will be honest; this is a load of rubbish. The public is having the wool pulled over its eyes. Ardmore Studios are located on a large piece of real estate. A recent attempt by the current chief executive officer to have part of the site rezoned for residential development was blocked by Wicklow County Council. One property expert estimated that if Ardmore Studios were rezoned for residential development, the site would be worth approximately €100 million. I would like to know if it is true that the Government was advised on the sale of this very valuable property by a director of Savills, the property people, who is now on the board of the company that took over Ardmore Studios and has a record of trying to rezone the site.

What guarantees are there that film production at the studios will continue? Only one of seven stages at the site is being used, while films are being made in buildings owned by the National Asset Management Agency, including a factory in Tallaght and the former John Player factory on the South Circular Road where a dispute is taking place and four workers were recently sacked for kicking up about conditions. Films are also being made in the Dublin sport hotel, while Ardmore Studios are empty. This stinks, yet the Minister cannot answer my question as to whether the State wrote off €7 million in debts held by the studio.

Is the Minister seriously suggesting this House does not deserve to know that?

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