Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

It is the fifth bundle of the schools PPPs. That is under construction at present. We have a commitment to two big developments in higher education. One is a €200 million bundle of higher education PPPs and the second is Grangegorman, where we are hoping to advance arrangements very speedily. We have undertaken an exercise with higher education institutions relating to future funding of capital developments. We put a call out to them regarding areas for which they would wish to have funding. We will examine those in the context, hopefully, of the Government deciding to give us additional funding under the capital review or, possibly, in the context of the €200 million programme of PPPs to which we are committed. The European Investment Bank is one of the primary funders under the PPPs, so that is a good way to access funding. The European Investment Bank is also a funder of developments in the university sector, which is very useful. It enables them to borrow in addition to the commitments they get from the State. It also can replace other areas of Exchequer borrowing in our capital plan. We always work closely with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform so that some of the borrowing for the schools or other developments may be funded by the EIB. That would be organised centrally by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We would not be directly involved.

A further area of innovation, and it is one we are very conscious of, is the balance in funding where it occurs, particularly in higher education and in the university sector, but not uniquely. There can be elements of philanthropical investment, so the full cost need not have to be borne by the State. A building might be 50% funded through private sources, so the State investment is not the full investment. Obviously there can be good returns for the State in that regard.

There are a number of different ways in which we are seeking to be innovative. I would not rule out any other options in the future because it is an area we seek to keep under review. If there are other ideas and ways in which we can access different funding or assist institutions in accessing different funding, we would be very supportive of that. Obviously we must be careful about indebtedness in the sector.