James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I had asked about the correspondence relating to the bike shelter. I acknowledge that we are now in possession of correspondence dated 19 October 2020. I wanted to ask a couple of questions about that. There was a letter to the Ceann Comhairle, which was dated after the general election and which was signed by Deputies Bacik, Cannon, Costello, Carroll MacNeill, Leddin, Matthews, Ó Cathasaigh and Noonan and Senators Higgins, Moynihan and Ward. It related to that correspondence from 19 October and referred to previous correspondence with the commission dating back to July 2018 concerning provision of facilities for bicycles and cyclists in Leinster House. I do not want to go through all of it because it is quite long and has been published. I want to get an insight. Obviously, this letter relating to the need to build a bicycle shelter within the precincts of Leinster House came to the OPW. Did the OPW tell that group of individuals, some of whom are members of this committee, how much the project would cost? The correspondence was sent on 19 October 2020, which was pretty deep into the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This matter spans four years of complex planning and everything else that goes with doing the work that the witnesses have outlined. In that time, did the OPW fully inform the Ceann Comhairle and the commission of how expensive the project would be or was the cost hidden from the commission?