Mr. Paul Sheridan:

What we used to have was a Government Departments and local authorities, GDLA, contract or an Institute of Engineers Ireland, IEI, contract — an engineering contract. The two of them were got rid of. They contained mechanisms to allow a contractor and employer to sit down and figure out or negotiate a solution first. Unfortunately, notification and follow-up are now required within a certain period. The contractor is told it must state when it thinks there is going to be a problem. It has to. The problem may not materialise but the mechanism creates an attritional model of working rather than one whereby the relevant parties can sit down and state what has actually happened. Many of the impacts of events on a contract take time to manifest and understand. There is a timing issue. The GDLA and other old contracts would have allowed the contracting party to ask for the bills on seeing the full effects. It could point to its own bills and to what is not right-----