Mr. Jim Breslin:

I can take a couple of those questions. The first question was why only five parties were allowed to tender. The prequalification stage shortlisted five. People indicated their interest, the calibre of the work and so on and then five were shortlisted for the full tender process. The five best were shortlisted for that.

The Deputy also asked about the stage B process and the contractor selected for stage A. This was played out at the committee in previous hearings and it is important to understand that at the stage A process, all the five tenderers tendered both for the stage A work - the basement works - and the stage B works. They did that based on a draft design with an estimate bill of quantities. One contractor was then selected for the project. At stage B, the contractor would have already tendered prices for each element of the bill of quantities. The design would be finalised and the bill of quantities would have had to be re-measured. At that stage, if there is an increase in the quantity for any particular item, it must be supplied at the price in the original competitive tender. That price would have been judged to be better than the other four tenderers. At that stage, a guaranteed maximum price is concluded, which is a combination of the original prices in the competitive tender and the final bill of quantities.