Mr. John Pollock:

It is set out in my opening statement where it describes the seven drivers of the construction costs increase to €890 million. The first was mentioned by the Deputy, the value engineering. We did not achieve the €66 million figure but rather €20 million in savings. The cost therefore went up by €46 million. There were statutory issues and I come back to the Deputy's comment on the sprinklers. We were very aware of the need to provide the very best facilities for children in the hospital. In our fire certificate application to Dublin City Council we exceeded the building regulations. We put sprinklers on the three floors of the inpatient wards, additional fire escape stairs and wet risers. We exceeded all the building standards by a considerable margin. No hospital in Ireland would have sprinklers throughout the hospital. Equally, when the condition came back to put the system on the remaining four floors - by far the biggest area in the building - we said we would appeal the condition to An Bord Pleanála. The independent inspector was appointed and he adjudicated that we were already in excess of the building regulations and that sprinklers were not a requirement. It was brought to the board of An Bord Pleanála, which adjudicated by a four to three majority that the additional sprinklers would be a prudent measure. We had to accept that decision but we had already exceeded the building regulations. There was the issue of having to put sprinklers into the building and we also saw the tragic loss of life at Grenfell in London, which also had an impact on building standards, specifically insulation and non-combustible materials.