The cost of a multi-million euro contract signed by the Office for Public Works (OPW) has grown to almost seven times its original estimate, the Public Accounts Committee has heard.
The Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy revealed that a contract originally estimated at €15 million in 2018, cost more than €103m to the end of last year.
The chairman of the OPW Maurice Buckley said: "It is important to explain there that what we're talking about is a framework contract which consists of lots of individual projects. So, less that anyone listening would misunderstand, it’s not that the work costs more than what’s anticipated, it’s that more projects were done than were anticipated."
Mr McCarthy also pointed to "overpayments" of more than €1.5m made by the OPW to the private company that runs the Convention Centre in Dublin.
Delegate numbers fell due to pandemic travel retsrictions, which - under the terms of the contract - meant that the State was obliged to pay a lower amount to the company which operates the Convention Centre under a Public Private Partnership (PPP).
However, the State is paying the premium rate, which amounts to overpayment of €1.32m in the year to last July, and another €190,000 in the year to next July.
Mr McCarthy said "if the boot was on the other foot" the Convention Centre company "would demand" that it be allowed to pay the lower amount contained in the contract.
Mr Buckley said that there are 14 years left in the 25-year PPP contract.
"There is no mad urgency. It is important to get this correct," he insisted.
Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster pointed to discrepancies between the estimated costs of contracts and what the taxpayer has ended up paying dating back to 2015.
"You don't seem to learn from your mistakes," she said, and accused the OPW of the "wanton waste of tax-payers' money".
Mr Buckley also revealed that the OPW has spent €71m on 29 Brexit-related projects.
