Chairman:

The Minister said there was no State money lost but €250,000 was spent knocking down a building that was built, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's recent report with "poor ground conditions, design inadequacies and delays due to suspension of works while the builder was on site." In other words, people went ahead under a departmental partnership and built a building that was on poor grounds and with poor design. As a result the building had to be knocked down. There was also an overrun of funds. The Minister said there was an overrun of some €900,000. This means that the project's own estimate of costs was not enough to cover it. To say that there was no loss of Government funds does not square with those two pieces of information. Is the Minister looking to pursue Solas to recoup revenue for the State? What safeguards have been put in place with regard to the last €900,000 of funds?