Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In terms of Senator Paddy Burke's proposal for the overspend, he is absolutely right. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I are very conscious of the fact that as we embark on Project Ireland 2040, and so are about to spend €116 billion, we do not want to have the situation that we had in previous national development plans where projects came in over cost and, in many cases, did not deliver what they set out to deliver. It is on that basis that a specific project delivery team has been established in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to make sure that real-time data is provided to the Minister on a regular basis. We have done that because when projects overspend across line Departments, it is back to the Minister that they come with a begging bowl in order to fix the problem. The Senator is right. We are conscious of the matter and we are determined that there will be no overspend this time. An overspend of 1% or more on a project that costs in excess of €2 billion is a lot of money and we know what we could do with that money.I welcome Senators' support for the Bill, which is important because it allows Government to pay people from 1 January onwards. I thank the Acting Chairman, Senator Wilson, for his indulgence.