Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To return to the original procurement process, when TII went to the Department to seek to go to stage 1, how much work had it done? TII had obtained the planning permission. If I sought planning permission to build a little house in the countryside and if I intended to build it where there was a rock formation, I would do some site investigation works. I would know whether I would need a raft base or if a normal foundation would do to get the structure up. TII has had planning permission for many years. Why was there not more due diligence undertaken before stage 1 was awarded? I am not going to dispute the €15 million. I am not worried about that, to be honest, but about the thought of it running to €30 million and €40 million. We could end up with it over the estimated budget.

That is the issue that concerns me. Why was more due diligence not undertaken before stage 1? Transport Infrastructure Ireland put out a tender for stage 1 before moving on to stage 2. Were there many interested parties? Did many potential developers or contractors show an interest? Did many just walk away and say there was no way they would take it on? Were some tenders just not priced low enough?