Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael)
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I will move on to the children's hospital. Everyone in Ireland thinks that we need to have the children's hospital. Sight of that may have been lost. People are right to question the sheer scale of the spending. What work has the Minister been able to do in his Department to quantify what he expects the final cost of the children's hospital to be? What cost has been incurred on the underground works? My understanding was that, in 2016, the hospital group went out to tender with a split tender for the underground works and the overground works. The underground works had a detailed design and the overground works were preliminary. The underground works have preceded the overground works. What will be in place will be groundbreaking. It has been looked at for decades. More than 300 rooms will deal with children from around the country. Does the Minister have an idea what the final cost will be? If not, when does he anticipate that he will have that? What cost has been incurred on the underground works to date and how does that relate to taxpayers' money? Does he have an idea of the timeframe for it to be in place and operational?