David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am satisfied, from my perspective, that there was a lack of clarity on the terms of reference. I want to move on to the pilot projects as I have a number of questions on them. We know there were cost overruns and overspend. A valid point was made by the Chairman at the start of the meeting, that the information we have on each of the pilots is up to 2014.

It would be useful if we could get a breakdown of each of the individual projects, the initial estimated cost and the outturn up to now because that, first of all, is important.

Returning to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on this issue, on page 51, recommendation 5.3 states, "A detailed project budget, including provision for any VAT payable, should be developed and approved at the appropriate level before significant funds are committed to any project." The report states the response of the Accounting Officer of the OPW is, "I do not agree that the recommended procedures were not in place in the OPW.", which is a clear contradiction of what the Comptroller and Auditor General states in the report. How can Ms McGrath reconcile that with the fact that there was almost a 200% overrun in these pilots? She cannot simply put it down to delays. Ms McGrath stated she was extrapolating the national from the projects initially.

Ms McGrath talked about lessons learned. I do not see a lesson being learned here. I do not see even an acceptance that there was a problem in relation to setting out detailed project budgets which would include VAT provision and all of the appropriate provisions that one would make for costings in regard to projects. It has been flagged here that there was a potential failing and we know there was an overrun but then the OPW is saying that there were not real problems here. I do not understand that.