Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is obviously very important to the people of Galway.

There has been talk about €9.5 billion, then €23 billion and the original estimate was €3 billion. What are the witnesses' thoughts on the construction sector here in general? We have long been talking about capacity issues and capital expenditure and we can lag behind a bit in terms of productivity and even environmental performance. I am wondering because of all this talk about metro north if the idea of embracing a more modern methods of construction has been talked about. I know the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform set up a working group and it produced a number of reports and recommendations. I have not seen anything beyond that at the moment. The metro in Madrid was done in a much quicker and cheaper way as a result of these more modern methods. Given the major capital expenditure that has been outlined, I would be interested in the witnesses' views in relation to this. Talk of €23 billion frightens everybody.