Mr. John Barry:

A question was asked about the number of man days involved in the project. I have just checked our documentation and while I am broadly happy with the numbers, with the permission of the Chairman, I will revert on that detail because the figure looks to be a little low. I will gladly come back with the accurate number. We have an estimate which appears to be low. Rather than give that figure now, I will revert back, if that is acceptable.

The second question concerned the savings made as a result of the contract being awarded to Bord Gáis. As I said, in the context of contingency funds and the additional money that it might have cost, we made an original estimate of approximately €29 million against a 20% and a 35% contingency figure, given the unknowns. Savings were made in the area of software licences in the order of €58 million. The most important point is that the value one puts on what the Bord Gáis utility brought to the establishment of Irish Water is very hard to quantify for a number of reasons. First, we have come from a standing start and in 18 months delivered the utility on time and within budget. I think, without fear of being challenged, this has never been done before anywhere. At the heart of this was the core expertise Bord Gáis had brought, but putting a value on it is very difficult. If I had to put a value on it, it could easily be tens, if not hundreds, of millions, if one went to the market and tried to bid for what has been achieved. Second, the utility expertise we brought in in terms of picking the systems and dictating the contracts for the service providers to do what they did was fundamental to what we had been doing as a utility for many years. It is difficult to quantify it and it is not covered in the numbers I have outlined. The savings, therefore, are far greater than I have outlined.