Mr. Phelim Devine:

The project was originally tendered around August 2016. Prior to going out to tender, there was market engagement done with a lot of the contractors in the country and in the UK as well. We were trying to get UK contractors interested in bidding the job because there was only a limited amount of large contractors in Ireland that could do the job. Through that engagement and through our own analysis, we determined that 4% was about as much as a contractor could take a risk on. Remember that the job duration, even back then, was four and a half years of construction. As that is a big crystal ball, we felt 4% was an appropriate figure to put in the contract and then anything above 4% would be paid by the State. In terms of getting the right balance in the contract; to be fair to the contractor and to the State, that is how we structured it.