Mr. Colm Desmond:

The business case and all of the tendering documentation for the children's hospital were detailed and extensive and covered all of the various areas that I listed in response to a different question. That process has also been subject to detailed governance. The Deputy asked a specific question on funding flows. The Government initially approved the funds for the capital project, for example, the €980 million in early 2017, on the basis of a detailed business case that was put forward. As time moved on, we saw that additional costs began to emerge and the figure had to be revisited. There is no question but that funding is not provided other than where there are extensive planning processes under way for that purpose.

The Deputy's concern about the private element is a slightly more detailed question. At this point in time, there are certain rights attaching to practice. Therefore, they were probably accommodated within the overall project. I am not sure of the scale or extent of that, though, so we will have to provide the Deputy with more detail on that. However, I recall that it was set out by Children's Health Ireland at the health committee in some detail.