Mr. Fred Barry:

On recommendations regarding board members, there is a vacancy on the board currently. Post the PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, report, I will discuss those with the Minister and make a recommendation or two as to how the board might be strengthened. That is not a reflection on the current board members.

Regarding the two-stage process, which is relatively new in the Irish context, the more general process of awarding contracts against approximate quantities at an early stage and subsequently converting those to either fixed prices, guaranteed maximums, target prices or whatever is commonplace throughout the world. It can work well and has the benefit of getting the work started much earlier than might otherwise be the case. Often, it helps in getting contractor input into design, development and some of the procurement issues. There are many positives to it.

It was certainly complicated this time around because the original tender documents did not capture the scope of the project as well as might have been the case. Consequently, there was far more left to be negotiated subsequently than might have been hoped. As a process, though, there is nothing wrong with two stages or variations on those. In the UK, for example, a great deal of work is done on a target price basis. There are many benefits to that sort of contract process. It is more difficult in the public sector than it is in the private sector, though. The public sector is understandably quite risk averse whereas, in the private sector, speed to market is often a much greater driver than getting the minimal construction cost. Saving time is regarded as much more valuable than shaving a certain amount off the construction cost.

Processes of that sort can work very well. That does not mean that they have worked very well in this instance, of course.