Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to the Deputy with the specific details of the project concerned, the Ballina to Killaloe river crossing. I wish to reassure him that the strengthening of the external assurance process is not designed, in any way, to slow down or delay the delivery of projects. All the evidence, in this regard, indicates that the single most effective way to address scheduled delay, and indeed avoid cost overruns, is to carry out external, independent scrutiny of project proposals at the planning and appraisal stage. Mistakes made in the past can be traced back to weakness in that area, where the work was not done properly in advance. This will help to ensure we can deliver the programme on time and, in so far as is possible, on budget.

The new arrangements only apply to very large capital projects with a value of more than €100 million. There are, of course, public spending code requirements for all public expenditure decisions and the roll-out of public capital projects worth less than €100 million, but they are less onerous than those of a major nature, which is what one would expect.

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