Mr. Michael Mahon:

As quantity surveyors, we know that the devil is in the detail. If they call accountants bean counters, then we are the brick counters. You really have to get down into the detail of each comparable cost. However, it would be unusual to leave out, for example, the energy cost because energy has a huge impact on the cost of cement, which has a knock on effect on the cost of concrete. It may have been some of our members who prepared these costs. We will find the common ground where we compare apples with apples but it is difficult to get to that point without having seen the methodology.