Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Finance the proportion of larger public capital contracts which are now based on fixed price lump sum contracts (details supplied). [18364/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The primary responsibility for the procurement, management and implementation of capital projects rests with individual Departments and public bodies under their aegis. Accordingly, the statistical information required by the Deputy is not held centrally. As the Deputy is aware however, my Department has been developing a suite of fixed price lump sum contracts in line with the Government decision on construction procurement reform. These new standard forms of contract will seek to identify and transfer appropriate risks — for example, inflation in labour, materials and ground conditions, to contractors who are best able to manage and control them. I expect that these contracts should be available for use later in the year, following consultation with the industry. Under these reforms, the amount of variation, or extras, will be limited to the greatest extent possible and this should help reduce the scale of cost overruns.