Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here to handle this matter. I am sure this is not this Minister of State's fault, but "this project will not be halted" is the punchline before we get to talk about the review or whatever else. I come from a business background. If these guys carry out a review and come back and tell us what we all know, that is, that this has got out of control and is costing double what we originally thought it would cost, how can we say "this project will not be halted" before we get back the results of the review? That is a very childish response, not from the Minister of State - he is here reading the statement he has been given - but it is very silly. I could say many more things about it but I do not want to be demeaning. To have that punchline in the response before we talk about the review process and what it will come back with regarding expenses and so on, I do not know how anyone can do business like that. That is probably why we are in the mess we are in.

I believe the date of the publication of the review is the last day of March. If the Minister of State could confirm that, I would appreciate it. I would go back to whoever wrote up this wish-wash in the Department and ask why he or she put the line "this project will not be halted" in the Minister of State's response before the review committee we have heard so much about has reported.