Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate it and I am happy to take up that generous offer. The Minister might comment on why some of the PPPs collapsed, as my understanding is that this happened because of a lack of financing arising from credit market conditions. The projects were good, well priced and ready to go but all of a sudden when the companies tried to borrow money over 20 or 25 years, the international financial market withdrew credit and the cost of finance went through the roof.

In that context, can these projects be given some funding through the European Investment Bank or similar institution so that finance could be freed up for commercially-viable projects for the private sector which would also be of benefit to the public?

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