Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a conference call with three people involved in the development of a new 380-bed children's hospital in Ontario, Canada. One of the issues there is that much work has to be done beforehand. An office block of 22 storeys has to be built and all of the administration staff decanted into it. All of the existing buildings then have to be demolished and the building of the new children's hospital commenced. One of the issues that arose during the conversation was the inflation in building costs in Toronto. Building inflation there has gone up by 15% in 15 months. It is increasing by approximately 1% per month.

It is in that context that I wish to ask about the mechanism in respect of inflation contained in the contract for the national children's hospital. The project is not going to be finished until 2022 or 2023. We have a price that we are discussing now. There are also, however, built-in issues regarding inflation. I acknowledge Mr. Barry has only had a preliminary look at the situation, but what is the likelihood of inflation adding to the cost? Can that be controlled? I ask Mr. Barry to give the committee his view on what building inflation will be like in Ireland in the next three to four years. That will be a factor regarding any major building project such as this.