Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There is a fundamental problem with the Minister's response. His statement that the private partner is taking the risk is clearly not correct. The risk is being taken by the students, teachers, schools and communities who cannot access the buildings they badly need and the building workers who do not know whether they will be paid. This case illustrates the fundamental folly of public private partnerships. The Minister put his hands up and said it was up to the private partner to sort out the problem as the State cannot do so. Is that supposed to serve as helpful assurance?

The problem is that the State has signed away responsibility for delivering schools that communities and students badly need to entities that can walk away and stood to make a substantial profit. According to some reports, the consortium involved stood to make €150 million out of a deal involving an investment of €9 million. Deputies cannot find out the details of public private partnerships because they are subject to commercial secrecy. I repeat my call to have the Committee on Budgetary Oversight or Committee of Public Accounts investigate the details of this and other public private partnerships.

See this speech in context