Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very good. The entire series was filmed during Covid. Basically, a house renovation begins and halfway through the programme, after the ad break, Mr. Wallace says that they ran into trouble because costs spiralled out of all control. Every week they seem to resolve it because the contractor and the family split the costs. It resolves itself and then in the second part, the project gets built and completed. As we were preparing for today's meeting, it struck me that the private individual has a mechanism there, either through a quantity surveyor or directly with the contractor, to resolve issues. They can agree to split the difference, or whatever, and then on they go. While some builders have been burned on certain projects, by and large there has been a baseline of decency that has got a lot of people through difficulties. That mechanism, unfortunately, does not exist in large capital projects where the State is involved.

In its opening statement, the CIF suggested the State consider two different hybrid contract mechanisms, known as FIDIC and NEC, which are accepted internationally. I have a number of questions on that but I apologise in advance if other members have already put them to our witnesses. I am interested in the idea of building an inflationary aspect into contracts. Forgive my ignorance on this but we have all seen what has happened with the national children's hospital. Does that not become the upper ceiling for a project? Is there not a risk here for the State and the taxpayer that an inflation mechanism actually becomes the completion cost? If people believe there is a certain amount of leeway in project costs, does that not become the upper cost in terms of the liability and exposure of the taxpayer?