Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are led to believe that the Minister, Deputy Harris, was not aware of the costs in September, despite the Secretary General and an assistant secretary knowing that the figure was €391 million. I accept that is a capital cost but surely it is a pretty important figure to feed into the budgetary process. While the budget deals with current expenditure, there were also massive increases on the capital side, which we have all welcomed.

Surely if the Minister is dealing with the issue of increasing the capital budget for next year and further years, it is an important piece of information that the cost of the flagship capital project is running over by €391 million. Surely he would have an expectation that such information would be relayed to him, given that the assistant secretary in the Department requested as early as May that it be given to the Government as part of the budgetary process, which did not happen. Will the Minister give a commitment that he will find out why it did not happen, given that it was requested at the steering group meeting in May?

See this speech in context