Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 76:

In page 50, before Schedule 1, to insert the following new section:

67.--(1) The National Development Finance Agency Act 2002 is amended--(a) in subsection (1) of section 3 (amended by section 3 of the Act of 2007)--

(i) in paragraph (e) by deleting “and”, where it lastly occurs,
(ii) in paragraph (f) by substituting “public private partnership arrangement,” for “public private partnership arrangement.”, and
(iii) by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (f):

“(g) to enter into any arrangement or contract to procure as agent for the Minister for Education and Skills any public investment project in relation to a school, educational facility or other building or structure, including the financing, management, design and construction of such building or structure, as that Minister may from time to time designate.”,

(b) in section 3A (inserted by section 4 of the Act of 2007), by substituting the following subsection for subsection (1):

“(1) The Agency shall draw up, and may from time to time revise, a code of conduct that is based on best practices so as to ensure good corporate governance in the performance of the functions of the Agency under paragraphs (e), (f) and (g) of subsection (1) of section (3).”,

(c) in subsection (1) (amended by section 5 of the Act of 2007) of section 4 by substituting “paragraph (e), (f) or (g)” for “paragraph (e) or (f)”, and
(d) in section 26 (amended by section 10 of the Act of 2007)--

(i) in subsection (1) by substituting “costs and expenses” for “expenses”,
(ii) in subsection (2) by substituting “costs and expenses” for “expenses”,
(iii) in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) by substituting “costs and expenses” for “expenses” and by substituting “paragraphs (a), (c), (e), (f) and (g)” for “paragraphs (a), (c), (e) and (f)”, and
(iv) by substituting the following subsection for subsection (4):

“(4) In this section 'costs and expenses' includes--

(a) remuneration and allowances for expenses payable under section 12(5) to Board members,
(b) any fee payable or any payment due to a consultant, adviser, contractor, subcontractor, supplier, or other service provider engaged by the Agency under this Act, and
(c) any other costs, charges or expenses incurred by the Agency in the performance of its functions under this Act.”.

(2) In this section “Act of 2007” means the National Development Finance Agency (Amendment) Act 2007.”.

Colleagues may recall that on 12 March 2012, I announced a new school building programme outlining the investment of €2 billion to deliver 275 projects over the next five years. In order to achieve this goal, my Department has received the support of a number of State bodies, including the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, to assist in the delivery of projects. The NDFA, which continues to support the Department's public private partnership, PPP, initiatives, has agreed to take responsibility for the delivery of approximately 20 school projects by traditional methods under a devolved scheme currently being finalised. The projects in question are anticipated to proceed to construction in 2014. The NDFA will be expected to supervise the design and construction of each designated project and will, on behalf of the Department, manage the procurement of design teams, required consultants and the appointment of contractors.

To achieve the delivery of this scheme, the NDFA has advised the Department that changes are required to its legislation. These changes are to expand the NDFA's procurement capability beyond its public private partnership focus, conferring on it the power to procure contractors and to execute contracts for these more traditional projects. In addition, the proposed amendments will, where necessary, enable the NDFA to process payments to parties acting on its behalf for the delivery of the designated projects including consultants, design teams and contractors, or to assist the Department in processing those payments. These amendments are designed to achieve those objectives.