Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I have listened with great interest to the important points made by Senators Paddy Burke, Mansergh and Ulick Burke. Senator Paddy Burke raised the question of tendering for PPPs and asked about the companies that put forward the best overall deal. The NDFA will advise State authorities on the financial elements of the tenders and will assess and evaluate what has been proposed. Invitations to tender will make clear that the NDFA may give such advice and the Office of the Attorney General will watch out for illegalities in the procedures. Several stages are involved in the tender process and the agency will assess all of them. The public invitation to tender by State bodies and Departments will specify that the NDFA will be involved in giving advice.

Senator Paddy Burke is a decent man and he comes from a great county, but his suggestion involves a request for the State, through the NDFA, to act as a public consultant to various groups and to disperse advice to them before allowing tenders to proceed. Over the years, the relevant Department or State agency involved in seeking tenders for a large project had to appoint national or international consultants that sometimes received large amounts of money to evaluate the proposals and make recommendations to the State. The new professional agency will give advice about tenders, assist the procurement of finance and make recommendations, but the final decision will be a matter for the appropriate Minister or body, based on an independent assessment carried out by the NDFA. That is a new departure for the State, which is bound to save a lot of money.

To move on to the point made by my colleague, Senator Ulick Burke, better local government has been delivered with massive new structures, systems and numbers of staff. I hope it is working. If it is not, God help us, in view of the resources which have been ploughed into it.