Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

I have a few questions but first, like all the other speakers, I congratulate NBI on its work to date. Taking up from Senator Noonan, this work is essentially a large-scale plumbing project around the country where no one else wanted to do the plumbing or the pipe work. I sat on the public accounts committee for seven or eight years and we have had many situations where private contractors have been brought in and the contract is wrong at the beginning. The children's hospital is an absolute farce. There are loads of other examples but that would be the biggest one. Getting the contract and the terms of it right initially is absolutely essential. The fact that, in a way, this is quasi-State driven is essential as is having the support of all stakeholders.

Is that a model we need to look at for some complex projects in this country? There are projects coming down the line for this country. For instance, a project I have real issue with is the famous pipeline coming from Lough Derg, which is environmentally seriously questionable. Cost-wise they do not have a clue - not a notion. That is an observation based on the model the witnesses ended up with through a set of circumstances over several years. I was at the Cabinet when this started. It is a model that I think, collectively, we should all look at.

Where were there blockages? Were there any blockages from local authorities or from different organisations which had to be smoothed out in the beginning?