Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Fleming but support his amendment for a different reason. Before I was elected to the Dáil, I was involved in PPPs, public private partnerships, and financial modelling on the private sector side. I only began to take a look at them from the public sector side in the past two years. I have been astounded by the lack of public sector capacity to negotiate these arrangements properly. Vast profits are being made in some of these contracts which should not happen, particularly if one looks at the returns on invested capital. There is an opportunity for the State to tighten up the value it obtains in these contracts. If we are to examine the kind of profits the developers made during the property bubble, we would probably find there were super profits made off State assets and permits.

A provision like the one in this amendment would be some way of other contractors not just warning the State against potential issues with another contractor but advising it will be taken to the cleaners. I do not believe the apparatus of the State is set up to get the best value from these construction contracts.