David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The witnesses are very welcome. I commend their constructive opening contribution which contained many interesting ideas. The starting point for all of us now in terms of capital spend over the next while will be the national planning framework and how that works out. The logic of it is good in the sense that it does not seek to take from Dublin. We need a thriving capital city. There are capacity issues but there is further scope for development in Dublin. However, there is a big demand on the State regarding capital spend. Leaving aside the infrastructural capital projects, some of which Ms Burke highlighted, we also have the need to build the national maternity hospital and the national children's hospital. We have demands in third and fourth level, where there is a dearth of capital investment, health care and so on. We then have the need for transport investment and other investments. That is just in Dublin alone; we have not even gone outside of Dublin. Obviously, there will have to be a prioritising of what is possible.

That leads me to my first question. Ms Burke cited in her opening statement a greater use of public private partnerships, PPPs. A number of organisations and witnesses have come before this committee. Some of them are more supportive of PPPs while some are less supportive. Some economists have question marks over them and some are more supportive. The Comptroller and Auditor General's office has done a good deal of work in this area and it has concerns regarding accountability, a failure to do look-back exercises to see whether we are getting bang for buck. Before we can embark on more PPPs, there is a school of thought that we should have more hard analysis of whether, as taxpayers, we get value for money for them. Can Ms Burke give us examples from her perspective of what did represent value for money in terms of PPPs? How would she respond not just to the Comptroller and Auditor General but also to the many economists on this? Colm McCarthy has been a strong critic of public private partnerships. There is a body of opinion on them.

My second issue concerns capital spend outside Dublin. In her opening statement Ms Burke spoke about the need to examine where population growth is in the State. There is an intention, and it is something that underpins the national planning framework, that we have to build regional cities outside Dublin. That will require capital spending as well. How do we make sure we can do all of that while at the same time making sure we have the capital spend for the Dublin area?

In terms of my final question, when any group makes a demand for increased resources we have a responsibility to ask how we will pay for that. The question to Ms Burke and her organisation is that if it is recommending that we increase spending and capital areas, how will that be paid for? Will it be through cuts in services elsewhere or through increased revenue? If it is through increased revenue, what are those options?