Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We pay a unitary charge, subject to inflation, for a 25 year period. We have projections for the numbers of students in schools. The majority of our PPPs have been second level schools. The second level school-going population will continue to increase until 2026. We track the numbers in each of the bundles of schools. We are aware of the numbers in terms of the effective use and design of the buildings and knowing that the need exists.

One of the advantages of working with schools is that we have had good planning in place for the past ten years and we know the location of the bundles of population so that, other than where school choice arises, we know where the potential population for school children will be and therefore that the schools will be used. Also, in terms of the type of schools we choose for PPPs, we have to go for new schools or newly built schools of an existing school, often after an amalgamation, so that we know there is a demand for a large number of pupils in the school. We do not enter into PPPs for small extensions and things like that; they have to be major projects which are then bundled together.