Mr. Owen Keegan:

The original project agreement contained a put-or-pay clause whereby the Dublin local authorities were required to deliver 320,000 tonnes of waste to the facility per annum and if this did not happen, financial penalties would be imposed. As a consequence of the length of time for which the project has been under development, significant changes have been introduced. One of these is that we are no longer active in the household waste collection market. It was considered, therefore, that allowing the put-or-pay clause to remain in place would be inappropriate. As a result, this was renegotiated into an authority contingent obligation whereby we underpin the waste market revenue of the facility and guarantee - or partly guarantee - it up to a certain level. If it rises above a certain level, we obtain a share of it. This underpins the new project agreement. People can take different views on whether this represents good value for money. All I can say in that regard is that the NDFA, whose job is to evaluate the risk and distribution of risk relating to PPP contracts, examined the matter at considerable length.

They issued a value for money letter to say this represented value for money for the State, so I think we can have confidence. That is not just our view but the view of the State-appointed agency that evaluates PPP contracts.