Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

Not to my current knowledge. I have been down in Adare and at many of our roads projects. I have gone down and visited the teams and been very impressed with what is being done there.

BusConnects, by the way, will be critical. We will start one or maybe two of those projects. They will be going into construction this year. It is really significant because it will show that BusConnects, which has been spoken about for years, is now starting. There have been particular issues, as the Chair will know, with regard to inflation across all sectors. The transport sector has been affected by that too. If I look at the M28, for argument’s sake, from the original proposal that went through gate 1 at government level – you have to look at how we process things at government level too, I would say – to its final approval, I think there was an additional €143 million or thereabouts between the first two gates and that was things we could manage ourselves. Then I have to go and look for the €143 million that is the increase in the costs over the time it took us. It is nothing to do with our Department but it is just the process that is there. I think we can manage things better internally too and make decisions quicker on projects.

I have just been told the final business case for the national train control centre was approximately €148 million and its expected outturn is between €170 to €200 million, which is obviously significant. That is above and beyond what was budgeted for. That is the only one I am aware of at this stage. It is a very important piece of infrastructure. It is something we are working on with the NTA and Iarnród Éireann to get under the bonnet on that.