Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is why I am after the figure of 95% for cost certainty. It all went wrong from the point at which the assurance was given that it was 95% certain. The latter was not the case. The problems started to arise at the very beginning. The company went on site before the design was completed and the taxpayer has been playing catch-up ever since. The risk was not transferred to the contractor. It was a case of "Start work and we will talk about the design as we go along". It was a fundamentally crazy mistake and the Irish people are going to pay for it for decades. Those involved got it wrong from the very beginning in order to get on site early and we are paying the penalty now. It would have been better to take a few extra months, as necessary, to get all this done in advance and know where matters stood with the company involved before it was allowed on site.