Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will. We asked them to leave during the previous meeting and when they returned, due to the paucity of information and lack of post-project reviews, we made it abundantly clear on the day that we would not complete our work until we received all the necessary information and we would return to that. We have made a point of not signing off any appropriation account this year that has a PPP element until we get satisfactory answers. The committee has started down a road that nobody else has been able to travel or has been prevented from travelling previously. However, we are going there.

On Carillion and the schools, as Deputy Catherine Murphy said, the Sammon Group has other school contracts, which it was not awarded through the PPP process, but it had to go into administration because of the fallout from the Carillion issue. That has affected many schools it was working on outside of the Carillion contract. We hope they will all be sorted out satisfactorily. Whether it is a PPP contract or a traditional contract, there are direct costs but in both cases, the Department has to bear associated costs and we have been unable to compare them or separate them. We have a bit of a road to travel. Mr. Walsh will appear before the committee at the beginning of May regarding his own Department's Vote. This is too big a topic to lump in with that. Responsibility for PPPs extends beyond the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While we might refer to it in passing with Mr. Walsh, PPPs are a big topic that no public body or the Oireachtas has been able to get behind up to now. We are starting down the road on this.