Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. I appreciate he is not responsible for the nonsense with which we are confronted. We are supposed to live and work in a market economy and be able to access what prices are so that there can be adjustments for other competitors. Would the Minister not agree that it is unacceptable for scarce taxpayers' money to be used to fund contracts the cost of which the Minister is denying to this House? He is not doing it personally but is being instructed to do it. This is a time when the rate of interest available in the open market for a project with banking certainty such as schools building is considerably below anything that PPPs traditionally demanded. The Minister is the prisoner of this nonsense and I wonder whether he is going to continue with it. It seems to be a denial of democracy for him to say here that we have entered into contracts, the total value of which must be in the millions. A very good building contracting company is undertaking the project but we need to know if we are getting value for money. This is the nonsense we have been getting from the bank since last autumn. We simply do not know and, incidentally, nor does the Minister, who is the prisoner of the secrecy this system has imposed upon him. Will the Minister undertake to open up the system? There are many builders who would love to have a go at providing this kind of work on the same terms and conditions that are in place. It is wrong in every sense of the word that the terms and conditions are commercially sensitive. What does that mean?

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