Ms Oonagh Buckley:

If I might come in to assist my colleague, because we are simply paying for a managed service, the State-owned facilities come in at less than €20 per head per night - €19.50 is the figure I have in my head. I am talking about 2019. Regarding the older facilities where they were providing the full service but not providing access to independent living and to the better services required under the McMahon standards, we are averaging at around €35 per head per night. Obviously, with the introduction of the McMahon standards and because we were procuring accommodation in the middle of a very tight accommodation market, the prices did go up and so the figure quoted by Mr. Delaney of €45 per head per night is roughly the figure we were achieving in our contractual negotiations around the new procured properties with higher standards.

They also required capital works to bring them in line with what was necessary under the proposals of Mr. Justice McMahon.