Mr. John O'Donoghue:

I would like to make one point on the fact sheet the Deputy is reading from first. There is a question on that fact sheet asking: "Who owns the NMH?" and the answer to that is as follows:

The new NMH DAC will be part of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group [which is the subsidiary and we have all talked about the protections].

The hospital building will be owned by the Irish State and will be operated by the new NMH DAC under an operating licence agreement from the HSE.

The land is owned by SVHG [which is not disputed and which is a freehold interest] and is leased for 299 years to the Irish State [which I have previously said is a sufficient length of time for whatever building will be constructed on that land]. This is not unusual and many state institutions are on lands not owned by the government.

I would say, as a property lawyer, that is not unusual that buildings are constructed on leasehold interests. Ms Brosnan might like to -----