Mr. David Gunning:

A very clear governance framework is in place. The executive reports to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. We meet the children's hospital project and programme steering group on a monthly basis. We present quarterly reports to the children's hospital project and programme board which is chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Health and of which the chief executive of the HSE is a member. Between those set-piece activities we have a significant amount of stakeholder interaction with the Department and its officials, as well as officials of the HSE. I wish to emphasise our ongoing dialogue with Children's Health Ireland which shares our building, where we have a significant amount of interaction.

On the governance framework, there is a significant degree of governance across all aspects of the project, of which finance is a component. Mr. Barry referred to the rearrangement of the board committees. As the Deputy is aware, we are recruiting board members. The skill set required in order to fill some of these vacancies includes in the finance area, administration, project management and other skills to which reference has been made. Our board members are very accomplished, but we currently have a reduced number of members. The finance committee meets monthly. We present to it from an executive perspective. We are in the process of merging it with the audit committee. In my experience, there is a significant degree of interaction between the executive and the finance committee on all matters relating to the project.