Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In 18 of the last 19 contracts, the procurement and the contract system are coming in on time and on budget. Therefore, the first part of Deputy Kenny's assertion does not hold up and I should not bother to comment on it.

On the second issue, the cost assessment analysis has been done on the metro. There will be a further cost assessment analysis when we go to the market on the basis of PPPs and all the advices. We will not publish figures before going to the market. We have done the assessment. The RPA has completed a comprehensive consultation process and worked with its own and international teams, including a team from the UK which is familiar with this work and has been involved in some of the biggest contracts in Europe.

The metro north will be procured as a public private partnership, funded through annual availability payments over a period of 30 years which is what would be done with a large project like this anywhere in the world. The first availability payment is not due until the metro opens for passenger services. The capital costs included in the metro business case and the value of the annual availability payments remain commercially sensitive in advance of a public procurement. What dumbwit would go out to the market and state the benchmark at which one should quote? For God's sake let us have some sanity. One does not use one's assessment and go out to the market and suggest one should come in between A and B. What we would hope on this contract is to get some of the biggest contractors and PPP operations in the world to take an interest in this project at a competitive tender price. That is the way we should do it. Yes, we have our assessment but we will go to the market and have a second analysis. As in the case of any contract, the assessments will be transparent.

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