Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no transparency around these contracts, even long after the deals have been signed, so we have to ask where the oversight and accountability are. When the Minister had this portfolio in 2017, the IMF recommended Ireland reduce the sums Departments could spend on PPP contracts. Departments are not supposed to spend more than 10% of the capital budget, as the Minister knows, on annual PPP contract payments. This level has stayed the same and has not reduced. The IMF recommended the Minister restrict the areas for the use of these contracts, such as to traditionally social areas such as healthcare, education and housing, and the opposite has happened. Why, therefore, has the Minister chosen for the past seven years to ignore that recommendation from the IMF and why has the Government drastically increased the use of PPPs?

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