Charlie McCreevy (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The NDFA will provide advice about financial packages and, for those who believe differently, it will not act as another layer of bureaucracy. The sponsoring Department will be entitled to either accept or ignore the agency's advice.

Let us consider the example of a project in line with the overall schools building programme. It is likely the NDFA would state that it could provide a better financial package for such a project. In the instance to which I refer, the line Department was the Department of Education and Science which possesses all the details of the project in question and its officials could be questioned by members of the relevant committee, if necessary. Jarvis Limited ran the project, but the financial package was put in place by Barclays Bank which, naturally, would have sought a return on its investment. It is possible that, had it been in existence, the NDFA would have offered advice on alternative financial arrangements. That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of the NDFA.