Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On that issue, the Minister for Finance has undertaken a review of the PPPs. He has given quite a lot of time to listening to the various participants and stakeholders in PPPs from different perspectives. Many of them felt there were too few projects that were too costly and some of the international companies said that the cost of doing their presentations and then losing out under the process was too burdensome, and that is the reason they were not engaging as much as possible. The Minister has finished the review and I understand he is to make some changes in that regard. I am not sure of the timescale involved — I was not party to the meetings — but I am aware he has examined that. Education is one of the areas on which there are different views. Some people say it was marvellous value and others argue the contrary.

On the CLÁR programme, there has been a clear commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government to continue with and review the programme. It is a good example of a programme that delivers a significant community impact relative to what is not high overall expenditure. There are 20 measures in operation under the programme, including roads, water, sewerage, sports, community, health, communications, electricity, conversions and enhancement of village countryside and schools. The programme covers part of 18 counties and a population catchment area of 362 people, an increase of 78 since the programme started. Over the period, €71 million has been invested in the programme. The Exchequer provision for 2005 is €13.7 million.

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