Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Any confusion around the matter was cleared up earlier in the year. The draft documentation can be used to carry out the cost-effectiveness analyses. The reason we do such analyses rather than cost-benefit analyses is that we consider social housing projects. We determine them in different ways and it is a question as to whether it is a better way of delivering the project, not whether the project is good. Exceeding the €20 million cap has affected only six local authorities thus far and has happened only in the past 18 months. We have had a series of engagements with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and have helped the local authorities concerned navigate that Department. An example is what we did in the case of the first bundle of public private partnerships. Change is coming as a result of the Government decision yesterday and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, will announce that soon. Given that the decision has been made by Cabinet and we are discussing it today, projects below €100 million will still require a cost-effectiveness analysis, but they will not have to go through the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The new code will be available in January.

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