Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is correct but there is an important point there. Mr. Conlon is absolutely right in that cost forecasting is a very integral part of the arrangement. If we are wrong in that area, we are wrong all over, like the ripples in a pool. However, if we were right in the beginning and we increased the cost forecast to a level which would have been realistic, the project might then not have gone ahead at all. Where do we go then, not only in respect of the children’s hospital but also in other cases?

We, as Members of the Oireachtas, hear regularly a complaint that bureaucracy and red tape is holding up major projects for years. The problem then is that if something holds up a particular project, whether it be the western rail corridor, the Derry road or whatever, and if it is held up for years until something else happens, then it ends up being held up for a very big reason and it cannot go forward at all. I question the wisdom of where we try to achieve the best but we do not always get it at the end of the day and it is then more costly. Let nobody tell me that the Derry road, if it had been done 15 years ago, would not have been better value for money than when it will be done. This is a fact of life.