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

I saw NBI vans going around in the springtime. There was some level of operation going on.

I want to ask about the penalties. This is something that we need to nail down today. On 1 June, I asked the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, in the Dáil about this. He said that as he understood it, there were none in the current contract. The reply to a parliamentary question I put to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, on 17 June was that there are key performance indicators to ensure services are maintained appropriately, including significant penalties to address underperformance. Several years ago, the former Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, told me on the floor of the Dáil when replying to a question on this that stringent penalties would be imposed. What I am hearing this morning is that if NBI does not get to the 60,000 it will not get paid. The point is that it can move at its own pace if there is no other penalty. I was given to believe, and the greater world out there believes, that there were going to be stringent penalties. There is huge concern about this not just among Members of the Oireachtas but in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It outlined clearly what its concerns are. I want to clarify this with a "Yes" or "No" answer. Apart from not being paid for work not done, in other words if it does not get 60,000 done it will not get paid for the full 60,000, is there another financial penalty?