Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)

I thank Mr. Jordan. Before we go to members of the committee, I have one question. It is probably for the second group who spoke. When a project starts construction, why does the public always hear how there are so many changes needed in the design and layout during the course of the project and how there are so many changes made to big projects that were not foreseeable at the beginning? That seems to add extra work. Why was it not adequately taken into account? Was there lack of sufficient engagement with the client? Could it be possible that the client did not fully understand the project because it had not done a project of that scale before? I ask for a comment on that because that is the obvious thing. How much are the extras and why do we have the extras? We have them because we changed this and we changed that. Why does that happen? It is rare to hear of a contract where that does not happen. Maybe they are out there and we do not hear about them.

My last quick question is why we do not have more standardised design. If you go back over the decades, every school built in Ireland during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s was identical. You knew by looking at every one of them. Now, and in recent decades, every school has to be different. Maybe somebody said it is to build up the level of expertise in the country but that all costs money. For example, I know in the Courts Service, there is one courthouse in one part of the country that will nearly be the same design as somewhere else. Why is there not more of that? Whoever wishes to comment can or we can get a quick comment from each. I will then ask Deputy Joe Neville as he is our first questioner today. I would like a quick response to my questions from whoever wants to answer.