Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----number 984 and are valued at €542 million. The last estimate in terms of the value of claims that I saw was in November and they were valued at €514 million at that point. There is an increase already of €30 million in the value of the claims that have been submitted by the contractor. It would be useful for us to get clarification as to whether those claims are inflation-related or otherwise and to get more detail in respect of that.

I reinforce Deputy Catherine Murphy's final point with regard to the timeframe. We see all these claims being submitted. We have no sense yet of any confidence that a failure to deliver the latest timeframe for the completion and delivery of this project will result in any penalties being imposed. I agree that we need to get that clarification.