Mr. Aidan Sweeney:

On the common good, again, it is about making sure with projects that are critical, whether that is water infrastructure or climate requirements, that there is a balancing between what is good for the country as a whole or a community versus an individual objector. It is about having a balance and clear understanding why these projects are needed.

On public-private partnerships we are looking for a well-balanced programme in the national development plan and the potential always of delivering projects and funding them. PPP is not our issue. There might be a misinterpretation about what we are saying, namely a partnership approach with industry in delivering the projects versus traditional PPP models of delivery, which is design, build, finance and operate. What we are talking about is that with the decision to invest, it is for the Government to make a speedy decision on how it will deliver a project, what models it will use and what the procurement processes are. There are value-for-money approaches and so on for how it might evaluate. However, our key issue around this is making sure that any project that is out is well scoped and the right terms and conditions are used for the right contracts and suitable models are used. We want to get them to look at the full suite of potential procurement options for delivering projects.