Mr. Jim Breslin:

I believe the answer is "Yes". During the course of the process the project has been refined and clinical input has influenced the building that will be built and the facilities that will be contained in it. That accelerated once the decision to pick the St. James's Hospital site was taken. We have seen a massive coming together across the three hospitals of the clinical community to try to provide for best practice in the hospital. I have no doubt that what is being built is superior to what was contemplated originally.

To answer the first question asked by the Deputy on the two-stage process, I will be frank. When my Department went to the Government in 2017, we were not informed by the development board that there was potential for an escalation in costs of this magnitude. Had we been so informed, we would have advised the Government that the two-stage process could produce a result like this.