Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about the cost of the project. The figure will come in at well in excess of €1.7 billion. I believe that this project will go to the €2 billion mark and I do not hear Mr. Breslin saying it will not. In fairness, I do not believe he is in a position to do that. The public has lost confidence in how we as a country administer large projects such as this. People have given up and do not believe we can deliver such projects at the initially estimated costs. I say that as a member of the Government that first started and signed off on this project. There is no way that the Government of the day would have done this if we had known or it had been projected where this would go.

My next question is for Mr. Curran. I apologise for shocking him. I understand that he has had to do much work over the last months to determine what will be dropped, suspended and profiled. The word "profiled" is very important. It means projects that were commencing or going forward where contracts had not been signed now have to move to more distant dates. One cannot create more money and Mr. Curran has a difficult job because many things have been sucked up by the excessive costs of the children's hospital. Is that not true? What projects have ceased, been postponed and, most important, profiled out? We have announcements relating to a range of strategies, including the national maternity strategy. Announcements are one thing but where are we with regard to capital investments and projections to 2028?