Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The other point I raised was the relationship between the various levels of management. I know the Minister referred to governance. I believe the linkage between the people with responsibilities was inadequate. How they were brought together and how often they meet are questions about which I automatically have concerns. I put that question to them previously and some of those present as well. The answer was to the effect that they were kept up to date but it sounded like it happened on a monthly basis, which is not nearly enough for a project like this. These things shift very rapidly and things can change suddenly. Waiting for a monthly meeting at which one updates one's colleagues about something is not the way to do it. In some cases, it could be more than a month. It could be two months depending on the time the meetings took place. I am not sure if the Minister wants to address that as well.

Regarding future overruns, if we are dealing with a quantity surveyor's picture, we should know fairly well where we are going early on. The extent to which future overruns can take place must be minimised for a range of reasons. If there is some mystery about what the future holds for us in this scenario, it is dangerous. Notwithstanding the PwC report and its benefits, which we all accept, unless we have found a way to ensure that the contract prices we are now looking at are stable, will remain stable or will escalate, we will all be at fault because it could be alleged at some later stage that we discussed this and something happened afterwards. I ask that this question be addressed in particular. I assume we did not get an accurate estimate of the quantities involved in the beginning. They were not available or we proceeded before we should have. We need to be far more accurate from now on when it comes to all the quantities involved and any changes that might take place. If changes take place, we need to know about that and for what purpose. Otherwise we could face another problem.