Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I offer my thoughts and wishes to the family of Pat Muckian who died last night following an attack in Dundalk on 3 May. Pat was very respected and was a member of a hugely respected family in Dundalk that has been through a huge tragedy. I wish to put that on record.

Regarding the European Commission and the rules on tendering, we all know we need to see accountability and transparency and need to ensure there is due diligence. However, we have seen the issues related to lowest cost tenders and it is absolutely vital we have an emphasis on the ability to deliver. I imagine the Taoiseach cannot be happy about how the news of the contract being awarded for the Narrow Water Bridge made its way into the public domain via the X account of Construction Information Services NI. Councillor Antóin Watters and I are obviously very supportive of this project but we were in correspondence with Louth County Council, which stated it did not put the information out there as the lead. The county council also stated that the contract figure is not necessarily correct. We all support this project and we all need to see it continue. It is an absolutely fabulous cross-Border project that will be brilliant for my part of the world, both North and South. It is about making sure we have absolute follow-through and due diligence is done regarding the contract, the price and the time of delivering the project. We need to make sure there are no more hiccups or obstacles.

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