Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To move on to Mr. Kennedy's conclusions, they state that although no economic appraisal was carried out, that was done in many cases a number of years prior to the contract being awarded with no interim reappraisal to account for changes in costs and traffic forecasts. An economic appraisal was carried out on day one. It might have been years before the project got off the ground. One of Mr. Kennedy's conclusions is that there was no interim reappraisal. We would always say that there should be a full economic appraisal every five years. It might have made sense five years ago but does it still make sense now? I have seen projects take 15 years from beginning to end. Mr. Kennedy has highlighted in his conclusions that there was a clear weakness there. That is the only conclusion. Then we talk about the concessions and the Limerick tunnel. Essentially, a lay person reading about the Limerick tunnel and Clonee route would conclude that, without the State agreeing to that minimum payment for minimum traffic, that project might not have happened. It could not have happened. The traffic flow did not justify it so the State came in and said that it would put a floor on the income regardless and that possibly made the project viable for somebody to take on. Am I giving a reasonable assessment?