Mr. Jim Breslin:

We can give only the information we have on the day the Deputy asks the question. When he asked the question on the previous occasion, we had the information that in 2019, €75 million of the €100 million excess cost on the children's hospital would be borne by the Exchequer and €25 million by held capital. That did not have a negative effect on the timing of projects but the question in our minds at that stage was what the split would be for 2020. As of last Tuesday, the Government has put aside a reserve of €200 million, which indicates there will be sufficient Exchequer money to meet the additional costs of the children's hospital without impact on other projects.

That may be immediately misinterpreted that we have so much capital that everything can be done at once. I have been around long enough to know that all capital projects take their place in a queue. There is an overall constraint. There is a 45% capital increase in health this year. There is a growing budget but there will always be more projects than there is money. For the children's hospital, to date there has not been an impact on the timing of what we can do. The provision on Tuesday will allow us to manage forward without that impact.