Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Murphy for his comprehensive report. There is a general consensus about public private partnerships, PPP, not least in education, in which I have a professional background. I have heard principals do nothing but sing the praises of PPP projects and how they deliver for them. If PPPs were to be used, for example, to install toll bridges on the M50, taking the macro-view of PPP rather than the micro-view, there might be limited benefits. I am interested, however, in exploring how those limitations find their way into the system, whether the system has recognised them, and whether they are likely to discourage future PPPs because it has been widely said that PPP is the way to get infrastructure that we need but cannot afford.

Deputy Durkan made a point about the Cohesion Fund. I have just come back from a conference on the expansion of the EU into the western Balkans. Cohesion funding will clearly become a huge issue as we start to try to develop these parts of the extremities of Europe, and I am interested in that as well.

On youth unemployment, which was briefly mentioned, I am not sure we have found a way to solve it, nor am I sure that training is the way out of the problem. I am interested in anything Mr. Murphy has to say about that matter.

The figure for fraud is 1.8%.