Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 68: To ask the Minister for Finance if, in light of the price recently paid for a site in Thornton, to which Mountjoy Prison is to be relocated, and in view of difficulties encountered in acquiring a site for FÁS in Birr at a reasonable price, he envisages that the State will incur similarly massively inflated costs when buying sites to facilitate the decentralisation programme; his proposals that would avoid such scenarios; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13379/05]

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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In respect of the decentralisation locations for which the Commissioners of Public Works have responsibility, the commissioners' objective at all times is to secure property solutions which not only meet the requirements of the decentralising Departments or offices but also satisfy the criterion of good value for money. Towards this end, the commissioners engage the expertise of both OPW and external valuers to assess the market value of the various property solutions on offer at each of the decentralisation locations.

In making their assessment the valuers have due regard to the prevailing property market conditions in each of the geographical areas concerned, with particular regard to the range of recent pertinent property transactions that have been completed at each location. The commissioners consider that the acquisition process being pursued will ensure that the cost of the property acquisitions for the decentralisation programme will accord with general market prices.