Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

First, I was neither privy to nor part of any negotiations and have had no contact with either the Léargas consortium or any other consortia that had bid. While I am unsure of the source of Deputy Rabbitte's figures, and it might be illuminating were he to disclose their origin, from the information I have been given by my staff they are not correct. As I stated, the overall increase was more than 30% of the original indicative annual unitary price that had been agreed. As the Deputy may recall, this price was to be paid on a public private partnership basis, that is, as an annual payment over a 25-year period. As I noted earlier, due mainly to the cost of finance the price has increased by 30% since May 2007, when the original preferred bidder was chosen. I believe Deputy Rabbitte referred to a figure of €30 million.

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