Mr. Kevin Meaney:

We had a review when we had the public spending code in 2022. At that point we were looking at the scale of the projects coming through and some of the projects that probably fell within the €100 million to €200 million band. We are confident that there are still very robust processes in place for any projects actually over €20 million. From €20 million to €200 million many of the same criteria apply around doing an economic appraisal, ensuring value for money and financial appraisal. In terms of the role of the NDFA, for projects of €75 million or more we require all Departments to go to the NDFA, particularly around financial appraisal and advice about how projects would be financed.

That is not to say that anything that fell between €100 million and €200 million did not have a lot of rigour applied. It was still a lot of rigour. It was just that those projects now over €100 million were the ones, when not planned correctly, were where the real risk lies. That was an agreed position among eight or nine Departments and sectors having gone through some of the projects that were coming in of that scale. The €200 million was seen as a more appropriate level to pull the full rigour.