Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The big advantage of PPP is that, while one cannot ignore costs, one can get the funding off the balance sheet. Bearing in mind what the NTMA was raising money for yesterday, we could get money now for investment purposes. We would certainly get it at 1% over a long period, certainly over ten years. We would not have to go up too far to get it for 15 or 20 years. In comparing the public capital programme to PPPs, it should be noted that it could probably be funded out of a public capital programme as cheaply as a PPP but the advantage of the PPP is associated with the second issue, that is, what one is allowed to spend. If it is spent on PPP, it is not coming out of the fiscal space. The Deputy is right about low interest rates. The price is not so much the issue as being off-balance sheet. They are all negotiated separately and some look like very good value and others do not. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is across this. It has the expertise. There is no doubt that it is wide awake to the concerns.