Results 621-640 of 6,604 for speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Over what period? For example, if the Department does a five-year PPP, Mr. Meaney and his colleagues will evaluate this and how to make the decision and in which route to go, whether it is the traditional route or the PPP route, over what duration do they do it? Is it over 25 years? Will Mr. Meaney go through how they come to the conclusion that this is best value for money to do it, even...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: All the assets that are done on PPP basis come back to the State. Are they all 25 years or are there ones that take longer?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is that for housing.? So absolutely everything comes back. We do not have any contract -----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I would be surprised if it was not but the officials might just check it. I want to raise higher education and housing in terms of the decision to go down the PPP route. What is the rationale for those projects?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I just cannot align that with some of the Minister Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science's announcements particularly relating to the technological universities, with resource to expand, develop and fulfil the vision that is there. Would it not be better for the investment to be put in there instead of a PPP? Would that be the way to go to keep the promise of...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: However, technological universities have to make unitary payments for the PPPs, which is an ongoing drain on their resources all the time, yet the Minister promised investment in their expansion. I am trying to reconcile how that could be a good deal. If they have to pay these unitary payments, is that not taking from somewhere else that needs investment? Is it not causing them financial...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Yes, but it could be also be looked at as letting the Government off by doing them as PPPs so it does not have to make the investment that is needed at a given time and instead the Departments have to use up their funding on an ongoing basis in terms of the unitary payments? I know the way the Department is looking at it but the way I am looking at it is that when there are cash-strapped...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Would it not be better to give the money to the local authorities and get them to ramp up from there?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I know but then there are local builders and so on in terms of the local economies. The IMF recommended that Ireland reduced its reliance on PPP contracts but the number has remained the same or been ramped up. Why was the IMF recommendation to reduce the reliance on PPP contracts ignored? The IMF recommended to the Minister that he restrict the areas where the contracts were to be used,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Transparency in PPPs is a significant issue. When we ask questions about it, we are told it involves commercial sensitivity and the information is not available to us - often for five years afterwards. Where is the transparency?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: At what point would the Department publish material relating to payments into the future?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: What is the time lapse? Is there full transparency then? Is this the case with every project? Is that information sent in as and when? What are the Department's checks and balances? What does the Department do after the horse has bolted if it is making all that information available afterwards and sees that something does not look right and that it should have done another way?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is that information, including the rationale, assessment, estimate and why we are doing this, then published? If a decision is being made about a project today, when is that information published?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: This is part of the problem around commercial sensitivity. If you are looking at five years, you are looking beyond a government cycle. How is accountability built into it over whether this was the right way to go if projects are not done on time?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Exactly.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is that not one of the great weaknesses of PPPs? It is a trade off between transparency----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: When there are private bodies as opposed to doing it internally or making assessments internally and doing a cost-benefit analysis. It seems that when it goes to PPP or is privatised, there is less opportunity to hold people to account. Accountability is around value for money and how we use it. If we are entering a PPP contract and there are other services involved it such as cleaning or...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Has the Department examined any PPPs and thought, "We paid over the top for this"? I take it there are a number that are evaluated and scrutinised.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I would expect there would be a certain amount of continuous evaluation-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Private Partnerships: Discussion (19 Jun 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: -----that can be done. An assumption is being made that the asset is handed back in a certain condition. Using that assumption, is it then a case of comparing if it was the right vehicle with which to deliver a particular project? What has Mr. Dorgan been finding in that regard?