Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I support previous speakers who raised questions regarding the Railway Procurement Agency. The credibility of the senior executives of the agency has been seriously strained. How much research did they carry out to establish the values involved and to what degree did they examine better practice in other countries which have established a similar service? I compliment the Minister and his officials on having the initiative to bring in representatives from Madrid and exposing the problems that exist. It begs many questions when we see a headline stating that the financial quantification should be €1.4 billion less than that which was originally envisaged. The degree of the research carried out in estimating the costs of projects of this nature calls into question the value for money we get from such projects.