Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Anyone can accept a small change in price, but this is a business case that was coming in at €637 million and in respect of which the groundworks were actually going to come in on price, and then there was more than a doubling of the construction costs. This is simply quite unfathomable to the rest of the public.

I ask the witnesses to talk to me about the €346 million that was then added on top of the €637 million. Here we have a public procurement process, a sum of €637 million and, hocus pocus, an immediate add-on of €346 million, this despite the fact that, as I said, in April 2016, on the "Six One" news, the then Minister, Deputy Varadkar, said it was €650 million all in, including VAT. Was the then Minister misled by people here that he was able to go out and say categorically, based on advice from people here, that the cost was €650 million all in? I ask the witnesses to explain this to me and the people listening to these proceedings. How can a Minister be able to say that? He bases that on the advice he gets from the professional people in this room. Did he mislead the Irish public with the advice he got? I ask the witnesses to explain that to me.