Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The licence to operate the lottery had to be tendered under European competition law. It was a matter of European law, as was explained in some detail. To get €410 million for it was good. Of that, there was €200 million for the national children's hospital, which was supposed to cost €400 million at the time. The other €200 million was spent on roads and schools, by re-establishing the summer works programme, at a time when we did not have a bob because Deputy Martin and his team had banjaxed the country.

I have two questions for the Taoiseach. I listened to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform speaking on national radio this morning. He appeared to indicate that the overshoot in the cost of the national children's hospital is to come from paring across the Government. Is that a fact, or is there to be a significant expansion of the capital programme?

With regard to climate action, is the national mitigation plan costed? How much will the cost be? Will an ambitious plan be rolled out to retrofit all public buildings, starting with schools, to ensure they have solar panels and are completely energy efficient?

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