Mr. Peter Walsh:

Where I believe we should be going, and I do not think I am alone in believing this, is towards a partnership approach. In civil engineering, you are dealing with significant elements of risk associated with the actual construction of the project. Ground conditions will vary. Weather conditions will vary. Each of those will have a very significant effect. You will be coming across services and things you do not expect in the ground when you start digging it. A partnership approach to the delivery of a project is by far the best way of doing so.

With the approval of the Government's contracts committee we went out with a new engineering contract, NEC, partnership approach and, by way of illustration, in 2017, we had nine tenderers for the Dunkettle interchange. There was a very high level of engagement by the contracting community and what I considered to be a very positive response to it. As things worked out, it was not possible to proceed with that but it was possible for both the contractor - we were the contracting authority at the time - to part our ways with the tenderers because it was not possible to agree a target. For reasons of expediency and the need for compliance in following a public works contract, we went out with a straightforward public works contract on the second occasion and we got two tenderers in the end. The job is going okay. I am not suggesting that there is a problem with it, but two tenderers the second time around is indicative of what the market saw as a much more onerous contract to deal with. It was the contractor which had brought the contract through the first part of the two-part contract who eventually won it because I believe it had a very good understanding of the site and it knew comprehensively what it was dealing with. It has been getting on with the job since and it is going fine.

By way of further example, we have had a number of other competitions. In 2016, with the M7, we had eight contractors wishing to tender for it. Over the years since then, in 2017, 2018 and 2020 - no contracts went out in 2019 - we were reducing continuously down to three tenderers for the N5, the Ballaghaderreen to Scramogue road. I see that as illustrative of how the industry sees that risk transfer. If we could move to a more collaborative approach where risks are shared in order that what we are then dealing with is trying to solve the problems of civil engineering, that would be much better outcome.