Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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On Deputy Stanley's question, this is a competitive dialogue procurement process. If one was building a house, one would go for a standard tender, such as a four-bedroom, three-bedroom, two-bedroom, one-bedroom or five or six-bedroom house, and it is easy to set the specifications for that. However, Science Foundation Ireland, for example, holds a number of different competitions where it sets a challenge to provide a solution. How one comes up with the solution is all part of the bid process and it is the same with this.

Prices were submitted last year at the end of the tendering process but, independent of that, the Department, through its own expertise, had independently costed the project. We had a good idea of the price this would come in at and what the costings would be for materials, labour, roll-out, etc.