Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Over the years, we have looked at a number of PPPs in detail and we have reported to the committee on them. For a number of years, we were collating information about liabilities under PPPs from central government offices and Departments for the audits for which we are responsible. The Deputy mentioned the National Development Finance Agency and my understanding it that it assists Departments and local authorities on their projects but it is not responsible for them as such. It is a technical unit. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has a PPP unit but it would probably not accept that it is directly responsible or accountable for individual projects. It is responsible for the framework within which local authorities, State bodies and Departments engage in PPPs and so on. Regarding the liabilities under PPPs, there is a case for perhaps more central collation and presentation of information about the projects. A project in which there was specific interest at this committee was the Poolbeg incinerator project but the understanding was that it was outside the remit of the Committee of Public Accounts. There is really no way around it. I do not audit Dublin City Council, therefore, I cannot examine it. I do not know how I can be more helpful to the committee on that.