Results 6,821-6,840 of 10,843 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Is that a toll road?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: There is income coming from the tolls. I take it there is an ongoing cost to TII.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: The company is largely responsible for the cost of maintenance of the road.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Then there are the original upfront costs in terms of the construction of the road in the first place. Taking all of those factors into account, including the income that is being received by the private contractor, can we say here is a balance sheet outlining how much the road costs, how much it costs to maintain, how much income the private operator received and this is how much it would...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: What are the final figures? How much more will it have cost the State than it cost the public-private partnership, PPP, model to do the same work?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Can we do that for each of the projects?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: In this committee, we have learned that some PPPs deliver cost savings, but many do not. However, we do not know that at the time of the contract; it is only when it is extrapolated over time. It would be very helpful if we could get that in respect of any of the roads for which it is being done.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, is one of these organisations that finds itself in a bind, because whenever it is doing something that is welcome in a local community, it is the Minister who has delivered that. However, whenever it is postponing or suspending projects, that is on TII. I want to try to figure out where the line is drawn in terms of political decisions versus TII's...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: TII would send the Department a list, I presume in order, of what it thinks are the most critical road projects or transport projects.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Of the existing network?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: To clarify, let us say we are at the preparation stage of the NDP, so TII has done all that work. It has brought its analysis of the Government commitments and the projects, I presume, from its own members of staff or input from local authorities. It has outlined other national areas that perhaps the Government would like to consider. However, at the end of the day, it is the Department...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: The Department took roads off TII's list.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Perhaps it is just as well because Mr. Walsh said that TII cannot fund the ones that are there.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: No, in terms of the projects being moving to planning and upgrade stage, TII has dropped eight of them in terms of funding for 2022.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Therefore, if there were more projects within the NDP, there would have been more projects that would not have received funding from TII.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is the next part of the question. How does TII decide the projects it will not proceed with? Where does the relationship with the Department of Transport fit in?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am trying to identify in the here and now - 2022. For an example that I would know of, the N2, has two pieces, which are Carrickmacross to Ardee and the Clontibret to the Border road schemes. Nobody who has ever driven that road would say anything other than the priority would be the northern end, because that road is in a more dangerous position than the southern road. However, TII made...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Walsh previously mentioned that, in terms of criteria, in some instances there is Government approval to proceed to planning. Does TII have to prioritise that?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: For those projects that were dropped, for example, if the Government made a political decision that these are priority projects and that was conveyed to TII through the Department of Transport, would it then have to revise its annual plans?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Walsh answered it very fairly. Essentially, what Mr. Walsh is saying to us - and correct me if I am wrong - is that the NDP was launched with bells and whistles, but there was no funding or not enough funding for TII to be able to implement and deliver the roads element of it, and it may have funding in 2026.