Mr. Conor Falvey:

The Department works very closely with the OPW in each of the natural cultural institutions as we move them through the various procurement phases. All of the projects have oversight groups in place. In earlier stages, we call them interim working groups. They comprise officials from the Department, the government unit within the Department that oversees the individual institutions, the Project Ireland 2040 office, the OPW and the cultural institutions. We provide resources to the cultural institutions to procure the design, expertise and project-management expertise and to manage the current project phase. Separate from that, the Department and the OPW have a programme-level oversight group that overviews all the projects. It includes the commissioner, the State architect, me, my colleague, Ms Murphy, from our government side, and various representatives from the OPW and the Department. We work very closely with the institutions. We are moving them all very carefully through the various phases under the public expenditure code.

On the code, there are a number of decision gates, covering strategic assessment, the business case, pre-tender approval, approval to proceed and the final business case. All of those are subject to the approval of the Minister. The groups typically meet every two months, or eight weeks, depending on the phase of the project. The models we have had have been based on the lessons from the National Gallery, whose transformation was very successful. As the Secretary General alluded to, we have completed phase 1 of the works at the National Library. This has seen a significant risk to a national collection in the west wing of the National Library completely mitigated, which is a very significant outcome. As we move to the next phase, investigative works are being done by the OPW to establish the physical fabric of the building, as the Secretary General referred to in order that we can have a good evidence basis for estimating the cost of the next phase of the works, which in turn will inform the design before we go to procurement, etc. That is an overview. If there is anything the Deputy would like me to elaborate on, I will be happy to do so.