Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Public private partnerships are part of the overall strategy to deliver on investment priorities. The multi-annual capital envelopes introduced in the 2004 budget set out the Government's commitment to invest significantly in capital infrastructure through both traditional and public private partnership-National Development Finance Agency funded investment. We expect PPP-NDFA funding to comprise approximately 10% of total investment as set out in the capital investment envelopes. Of the total investment programme of more than €36 billion for 2005 to 2009, the PPP-NDFA allocation, funded by unitary payments from Departments' Votes, is approximately €3.5 billion. In addition, there is a target of €1.2 billion for PPPs funded by user charges.

It is expected that the target for user-funded PPPs will be largely met by the roads programme. Adjustments to the targets for PPPs to be funded by unitary payments were made in the 2005 budget to take account of a shortfall against projected targets in 2004. There are a number of reasons for this, including the complexity of the process and the lead time involved in bringing such PPP projects to construction, typically 18 to 24 months.

In this context, I am actively considering what changes, if any, are appropriate to support the continued evolution of the process of projects funded by unitary payments from Departments' Votes. Building on the lessons learned to date and on the progress and expertise already developed, I am considering, with a view to bringing proposals to Government, how best to ensure that the appropriate skills and capacity are in place to assist Departments in procuring PPP projects.

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