John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Yes. We asked the Comptroller and Auditor General about the costs and the answer we received was there are substantial costs involved with a joint application. It is something over which the committee has jurisdiction. People in Carlow and Waterford are really interested in finding out about who knew about the process while it was not evolving, at what point was it, in effect, a broken process, and if money was spent after the fact. The HEA and the Department of Education and Skills know what was going on over the past two and a half years with regard to the point the Chairman made on due diligence being started, and that is when the process began to fragment. That needs to be explored further, because if we find out that it was clear at a very early date that this was not going to work and some kind of charade was entered into, the process pursued and money spent after the fact, that is serious.