Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I agree absolutely that these are important projects and I would love to see all of them going ahead so I could see my city, Dublin, looking like any other European city, with an integrated, modern transport system. These projects, however, all cost a lot of money and the reason metro north and DART underground were envisaged as PPPs is that even during the boom, no one thought it would be possible for the Exchequer to spend the billions of euro needed to pay for them. The two projects, if they are to proceed, can only do so as PPPs. If we did not have the funds for them during the boom out of taxpayers' money, we definitely do not have the money now.

It would be possible for BXD or a DART extension to go ahead with Exchequer funds because they are much less expensive than the other two projects but no decision has been made yet on which will be favoured by the Government. That is not a political answer; that is the truth. We must look at what is available in the capital envelope and decide which project can proceed.

The real issue with PPPs is that they are a complex and expensive system for the State to borrow money. It is the case, however, that virtually no bank or financial institution in the world is currently willing to lend the State money. That is why the PPP projects for roads are facing difficulties. Three PPP road projects were supposed to go ahead this year and we are still hoping to conclude one or two of them but that looks difficult now. That means going back to the old fashioned system of funding infrastructure directly from the Exchequer but, as the Deputy is aware, the Exchequer does not have much money at present.

See this speech in context