Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is what I would love to hear. At this point we do not know it that has happened but Mr. Harris will come back to the committee on that.

On page 21 there is reference to Garda masts, which is an income receipt that has jumped significantly. Presumably it is an income for the Garda, but what is it? It has gone from €523,000 to €1.5 million. Someone might come back to me with that clarification and I will continue on if the committee does not mind.

I will now turn to the Galway station, in which I would have a particular interest, and the Kevin Street Garda station, where we have a very new and welcome Garda station. I will not go in a parochial direction on this but there were significant changes and significant costs. As with the national children's hospital and lots of other projects, why was this not foreseen? Page 15 informs us that amendments were made to the original design that required structural works and in addition, there were other design changes to meet requirements of the Garda and so on. Could somebody come back with a note on this? Was there a competitive procurement process in the beginning? What happened after that and what was the cost increase? I am thinking of the children's hospital situation where a price was given and then changed. It appears that some issues can arise in a project but it depends on what the changes are, why they were not foreseen and why elements were not included in the original design. A passing comment on this is that I have no idea why the Galway station came out so close to the road. I could not let this pass without making a comment on it. There is absolutely no room for a bus route. It is a terrible pinch point. That is just a practical matter.

The witnesses will come back to the committee with two notes on my points.