Ms Rosemary Keogh:

I will answer the hotel question first and we might speak about the landlords in the Cuisle centre then. Approximately three or four months ago, when we were at a point that we were really concerned about funding not being available for Cuisle, we started exploring what other hotels were accessible in the west of Ireland. If we came to a point where we had to make the decision to close the Cuisle centre because of the lack of funding, we would be prepared to offer our guests and service users an alternative model of service as soon as possible. It is not true that the decision was made a year ago and I have already stated that in 2018, the board made a decision to invest in the Cuisle centre and complete the works subject to funding becoming available. The Kilkenny process started 18 months ago and it is not related to Cuisle. We were fortunate in that we had already developed the model and it has given us something to build on and provide an alternative service for people who go to Cuisle.

We entered negotiations with the landlords and in 2018 they offered to extend the lease. Had we been able to avail of the funding, we would have accepted the offer to extend the lease and do the works.