Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The position regarding the investment of equity by Granahan McCourt is that it must make an initial investment, fund the working capital and may be called upon to invest additional equity in certain eventualities. In other words, it is taking all the risk in respect of how this project might unfold. As the Deputy is aware, many commentators have said that the take up might be much lower. That would obviously call on the company to put in additional equity. There will be initial equity - working capital equity - in the contract, which is confidential at the moment but nobody knows. The company is taking the risk regarding what the full cost will be. The Deputy asked about the statement in The Irish Timesthat the cost over the 25 years of designing, building and operating would be €5 billion, excluding VAT. That is a true estimate at this stage of what is expected. The State has a capped amount, which is €2.6 billion if we take out VAT. Of that, close to €0.5 billion is contingency and will be only be drawn upon in very specific circumstances. The Deputy will see from Mark Griffin's letter that the State's contribution to the overall cost of design, build and operate will be less than 50%

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