Mr. Hugh Creegan:

That has changed in the intervening period. Some projects would have been following the methodology set out in that code, while others might not have. There is a codified process in place now.

Factors like discount rates, which represent the cost of money and investment, vary from time to time. Reviews must be carried out on a regular basis and they can change. However, the overall methodology has not changed.

What happened in the past was that project sponsors and developers might have taken an overly optimistic view of the wider economic benefits, for example, the non-transport benefits of a project. Now, we have a codified system in place to control that.

What has happened in this case is that we have updated the business case in accordance with the current rules. We are getting a benefit-cost ratio of approximately 1.4. That is different from the figure of 2.4 produced previously. Among the reasons is the fact that the Phoenix Park tunnel provides some benefits that would have been provided otherwise by DART underground. That needs to go into the equation. A ten minute DART service, which would have been in the equation previously, is going to materialise so it should not be counted as one of the benefits of the project. Some of the more technical things, like the discount rate, have increased from one number to another number over a period.

Let us consider the business case produced by Irish Rail. We were part of that and we reviewed it. Irish Rail set out a step-by-step comparison on how the number in the original business case moved to the new number. The explanations include those I have just set out for Deputy Dooley.