A regular theme of mine is the apparent lack of interest in the Department of Finance in the concept of cost-benefit analysis. It seems particularly averse to the discipline of evaluating the costs and benefits of a proposed project as a decision making tool. Reference was made to this recently in the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Bill in terms of ensuring the regulatory assessment was being done, which it clearly was not in that case. More importantly, it does not apply a cost-benefit analysis when circumstances change during a project to see if it is still worthwhile.