Mr. Fergal Costello:

We would be very concerned about increasing costs on projects of this scale. One of the important things is that when the project did get into some issues, as Ms Murphy-Fagan mentioned, there was a pause and so on; considerable work was done at that stage to identify the issues and prepare a revised memo for Government to be clear on what the issues were, how they were being addressed and the overall continued value for money of the project, as to whether it was still worthwhile proceeding or whether it should stop. Given the benefits that were outlined - future savings, better efficiency, support or reform in terms of accounting and so on - the project is still very important and will offer significant value and benefits if it is brought through.

The Department has also been considering the wider issue of big projects such as this, and those that are bigger again, in particular. We reformed the public spending code, particularly the capital side, to introduce more layers and gateways to assess costs and, more important, to assess risk to try to provide better understanding of the issues that will arise and to ensure that Government is fully informed when making those decisions. While these things cannot guarantee that costs overruns will never happen again, we are constantly looking for ways to try to identify those issues upfront and to take steps to try to minimise and mitigate those risks.