The collapse of Carillion calls into question not just the wisdom of public private partnerships, PPPs, in terms of the five schools affected and the Carlow Institute of Further Education. It also gives rise to questions regarding a range of commitments in the area of school-building, house-building, social housing in particular and capital infrastructure projects as to whether the PPP model is an accident waiting to happen rather than an efficient way to deliver these vital projects. I endorse the call by Fianna Fáil and others for a vote on this, although it is worth noting that as recently as last May, Fianna Fáil was saying that the Government was not being ambitious enough in taking up PPPs. The Labour Party also supported this in terms of the school programme-----

We put a 10% cap on it.

That is right. The Labour Party, when in government, signed off on the contracts for these schools.

Absolutely.

We need a serious debate about the wisdom of using PPPs to deliver housing, schools and vital infrastructure-----

The Deputy's time is up.

-----because, as we have seen with McNamara Construction and with the schools in question, PPPs are an accident waiting to happen.

The timing of a debate is a matter for the Business Committee. To reply to the Deputy's substantive point, however, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, answered that very well. If these schools and the college of further education had been procured by traditional means, namely, a simple contract with a private construction firm, it is equally possible that said firm could have gone bust.

Who is going to manage the schools? This is not just about construction.

Management companies will do so to an extent.

Companies of all types can go bust and as the Minister for Education and Skills pointed out, we are in a more favourable position because we have not paid over the money yet, and we have ownership of the schools. I am often a sceptic when it comes to PPPs. There is a role for PPPs to provide infrastructure in different ways. We built almost all our intercity motorways by means of PPPs. Had we done that by traditional methods, it would have taken very much longer. The party opposite made the right decision in doing that-----

I thank the Taoiseach. His time is up.

-----but PPPs are certainly not a panacea to everything. They involve risks and we need to be wise in respect of them.