Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

From the opening statement, it sounds like an appeal to us and letting the world know just how difficult the process of dealing with contractors and getting people even to bid for work is. When we were doing the motorway programme, there were many people looking for the business and many people tendering. The risk was being pushed back onto the contractor at that point because there had historically been many road projects that came in at the lowest price but then there were all kinds of extras so that the lowest price did not really reflect anything close to what was going to be the final price. The risk was pushed back then. However, we are now saying we need to go back a bit from we had gone, in putting all the risk onto the contractor because, in the case of Roadbridge, which is in receivership, something went there. Maybe the witnesses cannot talk about it but is there a particular reason we can identify as to why what happened with Roadbridge happened?

There is the planning process as well. Is there a better example in Europe of where it is done more efficiently than it is here? It is not that we want to exclude public consultation or the public? Is there best practice in other parts of Europe or the world? New engineering contracts, NEC, or Fédération Internationale Des Ingénieurs-Conseils, FIDIC, contracts were mentioned. I am not sure whether what they are was outlined. What do they actually mean relative to what we have now?