Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much agree with what you said, Chairman. Could I suggest that you might explore two other potential options? We need legal advice from the Oireachtas legal service about the overall structure of the contract, and where, if any, responsibilities down the chain to the subcontractors may lie. The alternative to that is to, for instance, get some advice from the Comptroller and Auditor General on the same area in that this is a significant public project. What we are being told is that, notwithstanding a lot of legal structures around the contract, the suggestion is that there is in fact no legal status for the subcontractors in relation to the fact that the contract has collapsed. I say that without judging it, but that they have been left holding the baby, which is really sad and unfair.