Professor Michael McMahon:

I will give a quick answer because Mr. Conroy and I just wrote something on this with other colleagues. At our annual conference this year, we discussed infrastructure and delivery and we had people from the Norwegian system come in. The Norwegian system is incredibly simple. It has a cross-party Government document that runs to 14 pages and outlines how it will manage infrastructure and major project delivery. The system is designed in a particular way. It is not wildly difficult to run. The country has costs under control such that about 80% of all projects come in under their budgeted amounts. A couple overrun, but there is accountability on this. It is a system that involves thinking ahead, joined-up thinking and planning, which we have consistently argued for.

I will pick up on the point that Mr. McCarthy added. He mentioned construction and infrastructural delivery. We have also repeatedly had overruns in health. Where we get frustrated is that we knew at the time of last year's budget that there were overruns from last year and they were not baked into the budget for last year and this year going forward. They will still be there. There is definitely a cost-management issue we have raised many times and would be supportive of.