Mr. Robert Watt:

The Deputy is right. The procedure up to now is that there is an affordability cap where we say the unitary payment in a given year will not be 10% more than the Exchequer or capital cost. If the Exchequer budget is €4 billion, the unitary payment should not be more than €400 million. We have moved back to the original budgetary control mechanism where in effect the capital cost of the PPP will be charged against the account of the body as if it were an Exchequer project. That means that when the sponsoring entity or Department is looking at the project from an accounting perspective, there is no advantage one way or the other as to how that is accounted for when a decision is made on which option to go for. If a secondary school costs €20 million, for example, and it takes three years to build, that will be set notionally against the account of the Department of Education and Skills for its budget. That means the PPP and the Exchequer or traditional approach would be accounted for in the same way when deciding on the merits of projects. It is a significant change if one goes back to the way we were before. We will see over time what impact it has on the decisions people make on these projects.