Mr. Fred Barry:

In chapter 6 of the PwC report it is stated that there are significant residual risks that are not included in the guaranteed maximum price. It is very likely that some of those risks will materialise. The most significant of them, relating to general construction industry inflation which is running at higher levels than are included in the contract, are quite outside our control. The additional amount, if there is to be one, will be determined by a formula based on various construction cost indices as they emerge over the next few years. Other areas are more within our collective control, such as design changes which might be introduced. The hospital was designed when it went for planning approval a couple of years ago and it has developed since but it will be another four years or so before the hospital opens. There may also be changes in medical practice too, or in technology which may need to be introduced in the project at this stage. They may lead to increased costs or a view may be taken that it is better to defer changes until after the hospital is completed. That will be a matter of judgment as we go forward. Children's Health Ireland, CHI, and ourselves will work hand in glove on those decisions.

On the question of governance, we are restructuring the committees of the development board to focus on challenges for the next few years. They have heretofore focused on planning and design, as was right, but our primary focus is now on dispute resolution on the construction and commissioning, integration and IT and we need to work very closely with the children's hospital in transitioning from what is purely a construction job to an operating facility.