Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

It normally advises on the form of the project, such as whether it should be a public private partnership or a conventional project. I do not know whether this project was brought to the National Development Finance Agency. We can inquire as to whether it had an involvement in it. This is a specialist board. It is different to a situation whereby a Department is undertaking a capital project on a one-off or programmatic basis. This is a specialist organisation which only exists for the period during which the hospital is being developed. There is a separate structure for the new hospital to run with the management and integrate the services from the hospitals that are being amalgamated. Generally, instructions and arrangements for the adequacy of appraisal and control of projects are covered by the public spending code which is within the remit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

They do have some capacity to look at individual projects and examine and report on them. I might suggest looking to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform around what are the arrangements in place to ensure there is adequate control and appraisal of capital projects.