Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Rabbitte also mentioned roads and the overspend. The report of the Committee of Public Accounts, which the Deputy normally quotes, identified the increased costs when reviewing all the projects last year and not just 30 projects that were cherry picked for the "Prime Time" programme. It stated that 40% was due to inflation, 16% due to failure to cost certain elements at the planning stage, 20% due to changes in scope for projects and 24% due to project-specific increases such as the Dublin Port Tunnel, the south-eastern motorway and the N11 through the Glen of the Downs.

On Deputy Rabbitte's last question, unfortunately the Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea does not have the ability of bi-location. He was in another studio in RTE last night appearing on the "Questions and Answers" programme and he could not appear on the "Prime Time" programme.

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