Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does Ms McGrath accept that we must interrogate the fact that the original figure was €3.5 million but that the exercise ended up costing €9.1 million? The committee thought that public bodies were beginning to get the estimates of costs more under control. I am shocked at the extent of the overrun on the original estimate. We have not heard of a figure being 200% over an original estimate in quite a while. During the recession, prices were keener and tighter. Ms McGrath's point does not fully stack up. In response to my first remark in respect of the physical contract relating to the River Lee project, Ms McGrath said the difficulty was with the mapping. The principal contractor on that project was more than 100% over the contract price at the end of 2014. I would like to know whether he has exceeded that cost in the meantime. There has been a woeful under-estimation of expenditure in respect of both the physical work carried out by principal contractors, where we have a figure and also in respect of-----