Mr. Jim Breslin:

It is important to reflect on the scale of the challenge we faced. There was an overrun of €450 million on the existing budget of €900 million. To decrease the overall cost from €1.4 billion to the original budgeted figure would require descoping the project by one third. That was the scale of the challenge we faced. The external expert advice indicated that it would require a redesign of the hospital. A potential extraction of services from the hospital at that scale could have undermined the potential to amalgamate the three hospitals in the process. However, a more modest scaling back of the project would also have involved redesigning the hospital. It is likely that changes to the external fabric of the hospital would be required, which would entail the submission of a new planning application and retendering. It is likely that it would take three years from that point until one could award a contract and recommence construction. In the context of the current inflationary environment, we had 2016 prices locked in. When one factors in 10% inflation in 2017 and 2018 and the inflation over the remaining period, the likelihood is that one would have ended up with an inferior project and hospital at a similar cost to that with which we are presented today. In fact, it is probable that the project would have been deferred for a generation. Scaling back the hospital would have left us in the heart of an inflationary market and would have led to a price similar to or higher than the current figure but for a project that would not deliver what it ought. We would have ended up in a bigger mess. The current situation is a mess and I am very unhappy with it. However, we would not have built the hospital if we had taken the action suggested by the Deputy. The current situation is invidious but we are going to build a hospital that has been required in this country for 30 years.