Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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Mr. Breslin cannot guarantee that the project will come in under €2 billion and that an exercise is being carried out to see how much scope creep or cost creep there will be again. In the light of from where we have come and given that the fit-out and other aspects of the project have increased the cost to €1.73 billion, as an occasional betting man I do not think the project will come in for less than €2 billion. The sensitivity analysis is the right thing to do because I do not believe that Mr. Breslin is confident that the project will come in at the current estimate costs but, rather, thinks there will be further associated costs. There have been so many surprises, some of which I will go through, that have take a long time to come up the line that I believe this project is highly unlikely to come in for less than €2 billion. Mr. Breslin cannot guarantee that it will. I am glad that the exercise is being carried out. However, as we sit here with the public watching on, it is mind-boggling to think that we cannot guarantee that it will come in for less than €2 billion. Until September last, the Department was officially telling the public that the cost would be €983 million. Four months later, we cannot guarantee the taxpayer that it will come in for less than €2 billion.