Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Ulick Burke's call last week for a debate on public private partnerships given, as he pointed out, that instead of a reduction of 6% in terms of costs, there is now an overrun of 20% in a number of schools selected for public private partnerships. Most people believe public private partnerships involve the use of somebody else's money. However, such funding is paid for by the taxpayer. It is time we had a full debate on the workings of public private partnerships for the provision of schools, roads, water services and so on.