Mr. John Pollock:

It is. That is an interesting point that the Deputy raises. When the Dolphin review was carried out it identified moderate risks on the site of St. James's Hospital. Again the development board, in conjunction with St. James's and the HSE and the Department, addressed. Even though the site was much bigger than was proposed on the Mater site and fundamentally the Mater failed because the site was too small in terms of development, which is why it was to be a 16 storey building. From what was originally proposed to the Dolphin group, the site has been enlarged. What we have now is a 4.86 hectare site which is 12 acres. 12 acres in any terms in the inner city is a huge site. It is three times the size of the site we had at the Mater.

As part of the lessons learned, the development board has been stress-testing the site. Once I was appointed in August-September 2013 I said let us examine, as the Deputy has asked, whether we have enough land. The Dublin City Council development guidelines set a height of approximately of 28 metres. We can work within those guidelines so that we will not be in breach of the development guidelines, which are different from those that were on the Mater site. We can work within those guidelines and An Bord Pleanála will take cognisance of that. We certainly have enough space for it. We stress-tested the site so that if a decision is made to place a maternity hospital on the site that can be accommodated as well.