Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions and some detail might be needed after this meeting but in advance of next week's meeting.

In August, when the witnesses started to give some consideration to not continuing with the project and were meeting on a weekly basis as a board, how was that concern communicated to the Minister? Were the witnesses at those meetings making sure that the Minister was kept in the loop, kept informed, and that the concerns of the witnesses were shared with the most senior person within the health arena? I think we all understand the structure, so there is no need to describe that. Were the witnesses satisfied that their concerns about the cost overruns had been fully made known to the Minister and he was fully across it back in August? As there were meetings on a weekly basis, I am sure that would have caused some concern.

A number of the questions I was going to ask have been covered already, so I will stick to the ones that have not been asked. Who owns the land that the proposed children's research and innovation centre is being built on? Who will own the building and how will the construction be paid for? Is it to be paid for through some sort of philanthropic fund? How is it envisaged that will be paid for?

My next question relates to the naming of the hospital and the concern regarding a memo brought to Cabinet which alluded to the naming rights being sold. The Minister moved quickly to say that he would not sell the naming rights for the hospital but he did not say he would not sell the naming rights for individual areas within the hospital. Does this feature in the board's plans? Notwithstanding the opposition of other parties in the Dáil, Sinn Féin believes there is good reason the hospital should be called the Kathleen Lynn hospital. As in the case of many of our universities, is it intended to sell the naming rights for a particular area of research and so on and, if so, have any discussions in this regard taken place to date and do the witnesses have ballpark figures with regard to investment which they may be able to share with us?

With regard to the Crumlin children's hospital site, what are the plans for it? Will it be available to the board? I would like to return to an issue I raised earlier with regard to the additionality of beds. Will beds in hospitals other than the three children's hospitals, for example, Limerick hospital, be closed on the basis of bed capacity at the new hospital? Obviously, this would have an impact on the sum total of beds available for children. Mr. Costello said in his opening statement that there are lessons to be learned in regard to the wisdom of pursuing cost reductions on competitive tenders and ensuring the sufficiency of tender information. Will he identify those lessons, perhaps, in detailed follow-up correspondence? Mr. Costello used the word "disappointment" in his opening statement. I would use a much stronger word than that. The lessons being learned are extremely expensive. Has Mr. Costello communicated the lessons learned to the Department of Health and, if so, is he in a position to share that correspondence with us?