Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I salute Deputy Mattie McGrath and the Rural Independent Group for tabling the motion. A narrative has been put about that the damage has been done, it is an absolute scandal but what can we do? It is too late. The motion before the House this evening puts a lie to that. All the Deputies who stand up and speak of a scandal but who do not support this motion are facilitating a continuation of that scandal. They are equally responsible as the Government if they take that position because it is not too late. It is shocking when one considers all the questions that Deputy Wallace had put down. He is someone with an expertise in building in this area. Not one of those questions has been answered yet. People in the know know that this project was not normal. It was not an unforeseen accident or unfortunate occurrence. Mistakes have been made that need to be analysed and somebody somewhere must be held accountable for that, but we are not doing that. We need to halt these works now. Everyone who does not support that action is facilitating the scandal because it is blindingly obvious that the right thing to do is to stop pouring money down a hole. We do not know what the limit is going to be but we know that it will be well in excess of €2 billion.

Some say that if we do not continue that there will be delays. The Committee of Public Accounts was told that re-tendering would add two years to the project. Deputy Donnelly said that it would be ten years, in his opinion. That is not a substantiated opinion, backed by evidence, mind, just his opinion.

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