Mr. John Pollock:

To attract contractors to tender for this price we were conscious of the need to get Irish contractors and international contractors because there were a limited number of contractors in Ireland that could take on a job of this scale and we wanted to make sure that we maximised competition in the marketplace so we went to the UK to meet with contractors and present at the buyer events there, encouraging them to tender for this project. We shortlisted five companies to tender for it but notwithstanding that, in the end we only received four tenders. The perception was that contractors would be falling over themselves for a project of this size but we only received four tenders. However, it was important for us that we had managed to get international contractors. Three international contractors made our shortlist, which sent out a message to the marketplace that this was a competitive process and that there would be high quality companies from abroad, which obviously delivered a competitive price at the end of the day.