Mr. Robert Watt:

There are six road schemes where the entire risk is with the private sector. On these two roads we share some of the risk. Our sharing of some of the risk impacts on the financing costs of the schemes. There would have been higher costs for the financers of the other schemes where they took on the full risk. On the face of it, there is no doubt that the moneys are significant, but motorway infrastructure is expensive, whichever way the cost is cut and diced. Whether it is funded exclusively by the Exchequer or the private sector or there is a sharing of the risk, the cost is approximately €10 million per kilometre. The challenge for us is always to find exactly the balance between the taxpayer, tolls and public and private partners. I agree that the numbers are significant. In this case, because of the nature of the contract, they are very clear. For projects funded exclusively by private finance, the equity holders are losing money. We may not be delivering the benefits on other roads funded exclusively by the Exchequer because we made an over-specification or traffic volumes have not been delivered. There are many ways to looking at the issue.