Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Minister could have come part of the way. He and I have discussed the PPP approach before. If it is the case that the rationale for the Government's employment of PPPs in the provision of capital for specific projects is the savings made, a criterion which the pilot project failed to meet — miserably so I said on the previous occasion, as a result of which the Minister lambasted me — in that the project was between 8% and 13% over the assessed cost of the State providing for the four schools concerned, what steps will the Minister take to ensure that PPP-funded projects in future will meet the criteria of capital savings and will prove to be cheaper than public moneys raised? I worked in banking for a number of years and do not have the same experience as chartered accountants but a simple observation is that private finance is more expensive than——

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