Mr. Peter Walsh:

The circumstance of taking the lowest price is one that creates optimism among the tenderers and they will bid the most optimistic price they can. All going well they might get out for that price but things do not always go well over three years on a 36 km strip of Ireland. Things happen. The contract had within it mechanisms for dealing with those things. They were applied but there seemed to be a misunderstanding, to put it that way, as to what the meaning of the initial tender sum, the initial contract sum, was. It was always going to rise but for some reason it seemed to cause dismay.