Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 234: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the reason his Department chose to contract a company (details supplied) to conduct the review of the quantified risk assessment on the Corrib gas development; and the amount that was awarded to the company for its services. [17970/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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In line with a commitment I gave in replies to parliamentary questions in March of this year, a review of the developers' quantified risk assessment, QRA, for the Corrib gas development was undertaken and will be published on its completion, together with the developers' QRA.

A tender competition was initiated. The company that was successful following this tendering process was British Pipeline Agency Limited, BPA. The tendered price for the consultancy was £2,800 sterling,excluding VAT and expenses.

Following media queries on 25 May 2005, my Department became aware that the company selected by means of a tendering process to undertake the QRA review is owned jointly by BP Oil UK Ltd. and Shell UK Oil Ltd.

In the interest of ensuring confidence in the independence of the process of evaluation of the safety aspects of the pipeline as addressed by the QRA version F and considering the public concerns and sensitivities on this issue, I instructed officials of my Department to initiate a further review of the QRA immediately.