Mr. Bob Patterson:

One of the key issues here is the scale of the programme. This is a very important national programme. If you look at the size of the facilities across the three locations in Cork, Dublin and Galway, there are 42 operating theatres, 42 endoscopy suites and 48 minor operating theatres. We are looking at 1 million procedures carried out and patients seen every year. We are looking at a massive project and that does take time to deliver, I am afraid.