Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Phelan and agree it would not be much of a leap. When public private partnerships are in place, whether for water, sewerage of otherwise, the contracts will be for 20 to 25 years. Local accountability will be taken away. Heretofore, local authorities had annual estimates where local councillors could ask the county manager for a report regarding water, sewerage or otherwise. When public private partnerships are put in place, a contract for 20 to 25 years with annual inflation will be built in. As a result, there will be no local accountability and no local authority member will be able to question the cost. The local authority will get a bill at the end of the year and be asked to pay up using whatever criteria was worked out for the payment.