I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I expected the Taoiseach, and I expect all other political leaders, to condemn out of hand the murder of David Black. I welcome the Taoiseach's comments. I know this is cold comfort to Yvonne and her family.

On the issue of the children's hospital, we have concerns. Philanthropy is a way to fund it and the sale of national lottery licence is another which has been earmarked. However, because of the difficult economic environment, there are major concerns, as expressed by some very senior paediatricians and others, that the downgrading of services in the current children's hospitals will be used to fund the stream of resources required for this children's hospital. We need a clear funding mechanism to be put in place in the context of budget 2013 and thereafter.

I refer to the concerns about the charitable status of the national paediatric development board and the issues raised. Will the charitable status of the development board and the guaranteed funding stream throughout the development of this hospital, as opposed to waiting year on year for funding to build this much-needed facility, be addressed as quickly as possible?

It goes without saying that the national paediatric hospital will not be built and opened in 2014 or 2015. Clearly, right through to the end of 2016, the Government will provide Exchequer funding, as has always been the case for facilities and medical personnel to provide care and attention to children who must avail of the facilities at the children's hospitals. That goes without saying. The Deputy can take it that the wind down, as he calls it, of the children's facilities will not happen in the sense that these facilities must be provided and funded parallel to the process of the design, planning, construction and fitting out of the new paediatric facility. It is not a case of, having made a decision to build a new national pediatric hospital, winding down current facilities. That would not be in the best interests of the medical people who work in them and, most important, the children and the services and facilities provided. The Minister for Health and the Government are very conscious of that.

"Pleased" is the wrong word but I am satisfied to once again put Sinn Féin's position in opposition to the murder of David Black last week. I did so in the North immediately after we got news of his murder. As the Taoiseach will know, the Deputy First Minister set out in very graphic tones not just the Sinn Féin position, or his own position, but the position of the vast majority of people on this island. I join the Taoiseach and Teachta Kelleher in once again extending our sympathy to, and solidarity with, the Black family.

I welcome today's announcement in regard to the go-ahead for the construction of the new national children's hospital. There will be questions to be asked as we get the detail, in particular about current services which are being starved of funding, but today I would like to deal with a really vexed issue, namely, the fact that senior bankers who were part of the financial crash in 2008 are still getting massive pensions. These banks were given big bailouts of the taxpayers' money to fund their operations. We learned that this money, taken from the taxpayers for a project, was used to fund the pension of former CEO, Eugene Sheehy, for example. He got more than €0.5 million. It is little wonder there is a disconnect between citizens, who are in deep distress, and the elites in our society and that there is a contempt for many politicians as well. Mr. Colm Doherty already got €3 million of a pay-off and he will get a pension of €300,000 when he reaches 65 years, all funded by the taxpayer.

We have the awful situation - one could not make this up - of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, echoing exactly what the Fianna Fáil Minister said, that is, that he can do nothing about the pay or the pensions of bankers. The Taoiseach promised something different and said no more blank cheques. He may have seen last week that one of these CEOs treated the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform with contempt. He stonewalled and refused to answer questions.

Again, this is a man who is paid over €830,000 per year and his bank has received €4 billion of taxpayers' money. What is the Taoiseach doing about this? Will he introduce a levy to recoup the payment of these super-pensions and ensure taxpayers' money is not used in this fraudulent way?

First, in response to the Deputy's comment about the prison officer David Black, and in respect of the comment made by Deputy Kelleher, I have already responded publicly. I was beside the Deputy First Minister when he made his comments in Armagh unreservedly condemning the murder of David Black. He also made the point that the coming together of different elements of so-called dissidents with a warped mentality about the future of this island carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. I hope the information available to the Deputy First Minister and the Northern Ireland authorities, together with assistance from the Garda in terms of whatever information is available from this side, will ensure that these people are brought before the courts as quickly as possible. That must be seen to be done.

With regard to the children's hospital, there will be a debate on this in the House next Thursday. Deputy Adams will have an opportunity then to ask more detailed questions of the Minister for Health, who will be here for that debate.

On the question of pensions for former employees of the pillar banks, the programme for Government sets out the Government's view that there should be a fundamental review of remuneration in banks that are subject to State support. That review is ongoing since the summer. Some additional assistance has recently been provided by Mercer to that review. The Deputy will have been notified of that by letter from the Minister for Finance some time ago. The Minister for Finance has set out clearly the legal constraints on him. The position is that these people retired from the banking sector prior to this Administration taking office. I understand the chief executive of AIB has written to former senior executives in recent days asking them to make a voluntary decision in regard to the pensions they receive. It is important to note that this Government has gone further than any previous Government by including all elements of the pay package under the salary cap. The current chief executive of AIB, for example, is subject to the cap of €500,000. The remuneration of the chief executive of Permanent TSB is also subject to the same cap.

It is also important to note that the story here has not been true or clear in terms of what has been portrayed. The transfer of €1.1 billion of nominal loan assets to the AIB pension fund was not to fund the extraordinary and, in my view, utterly exorbitant level of pensions to a number of former senior personnel within the pillar banks. It was to deal with the deficit that was going to arise due to the fact that 2,500 people were taking voluntary retirement from the bank. If that transfer had not taken place, the consequence would have been compulsory redundancies, which is a very different position. In the meantime, the small number of former senior executives would have continued to receive the extraordinary level of pension remuneration they currently receive. The transfer of €1.1 billion of nominal loan assets, which if they were sold at market value would probably have yielded approximately €300 million, meant that the voluntary retirement of 2,500 staff could proceed. Hopefully, following the decision of the chief executive to write to these people, they might decide to make voluntary decisions about the levels of the pension they receive.

In respect of what will happen in the future, the Government has gone further than any previous Government. The Minister is constrained in this regard legally in that pensions are regarded in a particular way under the Constitution. I will not comment on the issue of fairness which the Government will address, in so far as it can, in the presentation of the budget early in December.