Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her comments. The Iveagh Market is not a matter for our Department, plain and simple. That is a matter for Dublin City Council and it is through the council that the Deputy or her colleagues should pursue the matter.

The cost of refurbishment, renovation and restoration is exacerbated, as the Deputy said, through the years of inaction from the council and the lessee. It is not fair to shift the burden of that neglect onto the taxpayer. Dublin City Council commissioned a report on the condition of the building earlier this year that estimated the cost of restoration at €30 million. That cost was what the report commissioned by the city council came up with. We did not commission the report because it is not our business to do so. It is a matter, in the first instance, for the council. The cost is in the public realm and is equivalent to the entire annual budget for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and three times our annual built heritage budget. This needs to be put into perspective because the solution is not to drop every poorly kept building in public ownership at the door of the Department. The city council has to step up because it is the owner.

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