Mr. Peter Walsh:

Something I should highlight is that the parties seeking judicial review are also seeking a suspension of the work. Whether the latter is granted will have a significant influence on the timeline of the project's delivery. Limerick City and County Council have, with our support, been progressing to develop documents for advanced works as well as contract documents. Depending on the court's decision, that work will either continue or stop. If no leave for judicial review is given, the completion of the contract documents will progress. We will then seek to get the next gateway approval from the Government to proceed to tender.

It is difficult to put definitive timelines on these matters. In our experience from recent years, approval at the gateways takes approximately six months. A few years ago, I would have said that the tender process would take 26 weeks. Going by the Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge experience, though, tenderers are seeking longer periods. We are disinclined to ignore those requests. A tender period could now run to nine months or more. A number of years ago, our construction periods were typically 30 months. For the Adare bypass section, we could easily be looking at a further 12 months now. There is a reluctance among contractors-----