Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The country is in a position to borrow and, although there are limitations on the totality of the borrowing, €4 billion at just above 2% over a 30-year period - a very long maturity period - is an excellent way of providing funding for all the different projects, ranging from social housing investment to investment in our health and education services.

I am not familiar with the details of this legal dispute, so I do not want to comment on it. Nor do I know whether or not it is a PPP - it may well be. I broadly agree with what Deputy Wallace is saying. If it is possible to borrow much more efficiently and cheaply on the international markets - as we have done this week - and also to roll over a €9 billion portion of our previous IMF debt and re-borrow it at a much cheaper price - as we did before Christmas - that is certainly the way to grow national capacity in order to have the money for all the capital investments we require.

There may, however, be a role for PPPs. The Deputy is probably aware that Ireland has developed a very good model of bundling school and third-level education projects together. An agency like the European Investment Bank would not give us the €8 million or €20 million required for a small or medium-sized school but if we take a whole bundle of schools together we can get very advantageous rates, although not quite as cheap as what we borrowed this week. The Government has been using that mechanism widely. There are a number of different mechanisms.

I agree with Deputy Wallace that it depends on the terms, rates and conditions, but I do not want to comment on the specific case. I will ask the Minister for Health to give me some information about the cases the Deputy has raised. I fully accept his proposition that it would be so much better for this man - I understand it is a man in this case - to be able to get the dialysis services he needs as close as possible to where he is living. As Wexford Hospital is a very fine hospital, I hope that in due course it will be available there for him.

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