Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Every project goes through a line Department and every major health project goes through the capital assessment unit of the Department of Health and Children. Every project is bound by appraisals and examinations that follow good accountancy practices. There are also State agencies involved, such as local authorities, the NRA, the Dublin Airport Authority or whatever.

The officials in the cross-departmental team are civil servants. They have access to the design teams and the experts in the various areas. The system for most of our contracts is as good as anywhere else.

The revised capital appraisal guidelines for public capital projects are less than two years old. The ten year envelope for public transport is working very well. The more efficient price-fixed contracts are working very well. The PPPs, with the expertise of the NDFA, are also working well, even if they are going slowly in some areas due to complexity. This is particularly the case in the health area. The development of roads and regional airports has been very fast. The fixed price contracts have given much better value for money, with all the contracts coming in on time and on budget. The system in that respect works well, even if it is slow sometimes.

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