Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Was a maximum price set at that stage, given that the announcement had been made? Reference was made earlier to whether this deal was good value for money, and I believe that is what people want to know. In making the announcement when the deal had not been concluded, the officials did not put themselves in a great position to do a deal that was good value for money. I say that notwithstanding that I and others welcomed the decision to make the additional capacity available. We all have a view on the reason that additional capacity was so desperately needed. Watching what was happening in Italy, we could see that our hospitals could very easily become overwhelmed given the conditions that had been created. Does Mr. Breslin believe he was hamstrung somewhat in the negotiations during that intervening week by the fact that the announcement had been made but the deal had not been done?