Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said, we looked at fuel price inflation, as well as at materials, the dramatic increases in construction prices, material inflation and supply chain disruption. In many cases, builders could not get the materials required.

We are not centrally collating the increase in the cost of these contracts. We have said each contracting authority is responsible for paying for its own increase out of its existing allocated budget so there is not an overall increase in the budget across government. We do not have a centrally collated number for that. Risk sharing is required. We have not said the State will take on 100% of the cost but 70%. That is because there has to be risk sharing. If we had not done this, major capital projects, including social housing projects, could not have been completed. We would have had to retender and the State would have paid more the second time around for the tender to be completed.

See this speech in context