Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I fully appreciate that the Minister says his colleagues accept now that he did the right thing and that, had he had a time machine, everything would be exactly as it is now. I would reflect on those remarks if I were him because I do not believe the view is shared by other people. Those who look in at this are dissatisfied. The hands-off approach that has been referred to by me and others is very evident here. I do not believe this is something that the Minister can simply dismiss, saying everybody believes he has done a fantastic job on this. The scale of the overrun is such that it will cause other projects to be brought into question. Those who are waiting on projects - many of them are small but they are vital – probably would not share what the Minister for Health says is the view of the Taoiseach and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

I have a question on the tender process. Mr. Tom Costello told us when he was here in January, which strangely seems like a very long time ago although it was only a few weeks ago, that the lowest bid came in at €637 million. That would have been €131 million below the next highest bid. Could the Minister outline for me the values of all the bids? We obviously know the values of two of the bids because we can add €637 million and €131 million. What were the figures for the other bids that came in? When the bid of €637 million was chosen - it was €131 million below the next lowest - what was the value of the contract? Could the Minister give us those figures? I have not seen them in the public domain as yet.