Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody and thank them for the presentation so far. I have some questions that follow on from what my colleagues have already asked. I find it incredible that the witnesses would say they are between two to four weeks from presenting a report to the Government on this issue. All that can be left to do is to type it up, yet they cannot give us a figure and are saying it would be commercially sensitive. That makes no sense to me. Two weeks out from submitting the report, if the witnesses are asked for an estimated figure, to within €100 million, for the final cost or at least some part of the final cost, it should be delivered today. They could have saved themselves another trip to appear before this committee.

The dogs on the street were aware that this project would not come in at the projected cost. The original projections were somewhere between €650 million and €800 million. Who projected that figure? Where did it come from and who was responsible for delivering it? I ask the witnesses to respond as quickly as possible as I have a very short time.