Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Does the Taoiseach agree that the use of public-private partnerships is not economically justified but politically motivated and that the Government, in its philosophy, essentially favours big business interests in major infrastructural projects for ideological reasons and because of the political closeness of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats to big business interests which also finance those parties?

Does the Taoiseach agree that in respect of group schools there is no great experience in this country as of yet of the alleged economic benefits of public-private partnership and that in the case of the provision of six schools which were agreed in 1999, the Comptroller and Auditor General found they were 8% to 13% more expensive to deliver than if they had been delivered under public stewardship? Does the Taoiseach agree that the effect of this process is that the taxpayers, in other guises as ordinary people, consumers, users of roads etc., will be hit for more to provide for the profits of the friends of the Government?

When the public-private partnership process gives a company a stake or a right in terms of the provision of a public service for up to the 20 or 25 years, does the Taoiseach agree that it is inevitable that many of those companies will move on, or may run into difficulties or have to offload their contracts and those public services become the subject of speculation in the capitalist marketplace? Is that any way to deliver public services on a secure basis for our people?

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