Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I welcome that the will provide a response on the detailed questions I will list for him on the conclusion of this debate. In addition to those questions, were there bonus payments attached to those projects and if so, what were the criteria for the bonuses? In light of the report, has the Minister given consideration to the fact the bonuses may not have been merited? We had a situation where money was given out by the Department where the project plan, if it was in place, was a secondary measure. This was a recipe for a disaster. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy that the projects would overrun.

Who ultimately sanctioned the budget overspends outlined in the report? Did the additional permission come from the Department or was the overspend made by the local authority and did it then come looking for the money? Surely the issue should have been flagged earlier, when the overspend was happening and the local authorities needed the Minister's permission. It should not have required a report to bring it to our attention. The audit outlined in the report relates to a sum of approximately €330 million, but that is out of a total capacity expenditure of €5 billion. Can the Minister indicate the actual overall spend for the period in question, because Ernst & Young only examined a percentage of the expenditure for that time? If we apply the report to the overall sum of €5 billion, I am sure the sum in question is appalling.

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