Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In plain English. The letter uses the type of language with which people in the contractor's office and the board's office are familiar. It is the language they use every day. I am more concerned after reading the letter than I was beforehand. In light of this week's news about the escalation of costs, we need to take a few actions. While we are being denied the real information we need, there are a number of issues we should chase. The public are concerned, we as the Committee of Public Accounts have to do our job to try to keep a handle on the situation, and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General is trying to do its work. The accounts for 2021 will be due before or just after Easter. While we are waiting for those, we should correspond with the board and say the information in its letter is not accessible for committee members. The letter uses terms the board uses daily in its exchanges with the contractor, but that type of language is not useful to us and does not tell us what we need to know.

We must also enquire into the total spend to date. A figure of in excess of €1.4 billion came out yesterday, but there is also an estimate of just under €500 million in respect of the contractor's claims. We heard the Taoiseach's response to that yesterday. That is fair enough, but we need clarity on what the total spend has been, the number of claims that have been settled and the rate of construction inflation the board expects will affect the project this year and next year.

Is there anything else members wish to add to our correspondence?