Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

Nobody wants to go out of his or her way to look stupid. The reality, as the Deputy knows as well as I do, is that when one goes under the bonnet of buildings like Leinster House, for example, one finds in the detailed design and in the final planning, as I saw in previous Departments I was in, that sometimes the depth of the problems associated with heritage buildings, in particular, is only discovered after the fact. I have made clear that I am not happy there is such a differential in the cost. The planning and design phase has led to the project changing considerably. I can get the Deputy the exact details on what has been added to the scope of works since the plan that was originally anticipated.

I welcome the Deputy's comment that we should see more NCIs outside Dublin. There is only one element of the National Museum of Ireland, for instance, outside Dublin, that being in County Mayo. There is an opportunity now under the NDP to see how we can incorporate something similar in other regions of the country.

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