Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. It is extraordinary that The Irish Timescarried a very large report indicating a price drop for a DIT-owned college off O'Connell Street. It is the newspaper of record and it stated that DIT dropped the asking price to €12 million for a high-profile college adjoining the Gresham Hotel, and it will be offered for sale in two lots. It was originally put on the market in March 2016 asking for offers in excess of €15 million. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, is always very concerned about value for money and saving money and we are in a rising market, with property prices going through the roof. It appears as if the State is knocking millions of euro off the prices of realisable properties. All around Ireland we have schools that need building, rebuilding and reconstruction, and the Minister of State is basically saying she is doing a giveaway.

At the end of the day, she has a responsibility to communicate with both DIT and the Grangegorman Development Agency. Has she been in touch with them? Have her officials brought to her attention the startling news about the price of the property on O'Connell Street dropping by such a large amount?

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