Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I recall attending a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight on the issue of PPPs. I cannot remember whether representatives from the Department, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council or others made the point that one of the downsides of PPPs is that much higher costs for money must be paid when compared with when the State funds a project. That is on the basis that there would be efforts in capital markets to issue a bond or raise lending, which, as Professor Reeves noted, would be a more standard PPP model. In this instance, it is probably even yet more expensive because a return on equity will be the payment rather than a return on capital. It means we will cover the capital costs. We do not know the figure for the return on investment but it is likely to be even higher than what it would be if it was a more standard PPP project.