Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the weekend, there were media reports of Ministers being quoted as stating that this project is “flying blind”, that it is a case of “build it and send on the bill”, and so on. No one knows where it will end. Mr. Gunning understands why the public are alarmed when they read direct quotes like that, not from one Minister but apparently from different Ministers.

In January of this year, there were 792 claims and now there are more than 900. The value of the claims, as Mr. Gunning has confirmed, is €446 million. A determination was made on 549 claims and the value of those appears to be €229 million. In regard to the value of what is there, the nine claims that were settled cost €2 million. We can deduct from this that we are looking at around €220 million, if we were to compare the costs across those. Would Mr. Gunning accept, given the ones that are settled, that the rest could potentially be a lot higher than that? Would he accept that?