Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

If a person agreed that PPPs are always a good thing, he would find little fault with this Bill. My problem is that some PPPs have been the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket for certain private interests. The M50 is an example of how public private partnerships do not always work in the best interests of the public. It is important to have a means to scrutinise and micromanage projects carried out under the PPP system but this double wraps the projects and ensures they remain protected from the scrutiny I would like to see.

PPP sounds like a good idea until we look at projects such as the M4 toll road to Kilcock, which cost substantially more to build than the section of the motorway that was not built under the PPP system. Not only was it more expensive, but the location chosen had maximum impact on the daily commuter.

During the planning stages, many of these projects go through local authorities. I was a member of Kildare County Council when the M4 was being planned and when we asked about tolls, we were told the council had no function in the area. When I raised the matter with the Minister for Transport, I was told it was a matter for the National Roads Authority. These projects are always one step away from accountability.

The selection of projects is a concern. The M50 project was not scrutinised. There are still some who say the operators of the toll bridge took a massive risk but the three largest population centres in west Dublin had been planned years earlier in the Myles Wright plan so there would always be a substantial number using this road. It has become a distributor road for people travelling to different parts of the city instead of a national primary route. How can we ensure that is not repeated? We are pushing projects further away from scrutiny.

The only locations where tolls are considered are in the commuter belt. Those who pay tolls on the M50 twice a day, five days a week for 50 weeks a year must pay €950, often substantially more than the cost of motor tax and insurance combined. Public private partnership projects cherry-pick, with only routes that will produce a major return being selected. It is just like knowing the winning lottery numbers before the draw takes place.

The M4 is tolled to Kilcock, then the road is constructed from Kilcock to Galway using taxpayers' money, then in Galway it is tolled again by a private operator. This is not an equitable way to raise money to finance a road. The sections that were subject to public private partnership were substantially more expensive to build. I cannot see how the person subject to tolls gets value for money under this system. There is no equity in the PPP system as it has been applied so far.

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