Mr. Dean Sullivan:

I was not present at last week's meeting. The numbers relating to all of this are potentially confusing. As Ms Conroy stated, in April, as signed off by the Government, there was an expectation that the total cost for the construction element will be of the order of €983 million and that was what was sanctioned at the time. There was a recognition, however, that the procurement process being taken forward under the auspices of the development board involved a fully specced-out design phase A and that phase B was designed to a high percentage but there were details to be worked through. As Ms Conroy also stated, in April 2017 when Government sanction was issued and the new structures were put in place, not to change the role of the development board in any way but simply to evolve the governance arrangements with respect to which it reported, the figure was €983 million. The first time that figure changed, as we discussed earlier and as was described by Mr. Pollock and Mr. Costello last week, was when there was a €60 million or so pressure reported in the period October to December 2017 and into the early part of 2018. No pressure at all was reported in April 2017. That was effectively the start of the process. Contracts were signed in October 2017, phase A works were under way at that point and phase B was taken forward as well in terms of speccing out what the final project would look like. However, all the way through the back end of 2017 - October to December - and into early 2018, the extended issue or pressure on the €983 million was that €61 million. Mr. Costello previously explained the components of the €61 million.

The first time the development board, the steering group to which it reports or the board to which the steering group reports were aware of significant pressure over and above the €61 million was in August 2018. Again, we have discussed that. That was finally bolted down and crystalised within the GMP report that was shared in November 2018, which takes us all the way through to the overall pressure of €450 million on top of the €983 million. It is complicated, but not that complicated. In April 2017, there was no pressure. We had sanction to proceed with an overall expected cost envelope of €983 million. The €60 million pressure emerged towards the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. That grew to a pressure of approximately €200 million in August.