Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and also welcome the positive note on which Senator McHugh ended his contribution. I too believe public private partnerships represent the way forward as they adhere to one of the fundamental principles, value for money. As we develop, refine, re-evaluate and constantly monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of PPPs, we will come to acknowledge that fact. I warmly welcome the application of PPPs in the past 20 years. In some shape or form PPPs have been used as a method of bringing forward the delivery of public services, which lies at the heart of the matter. The skills of the private sector can be harnessed to bring faster delivery of facilities and services and provide value for money for the taxpayer. We are all agreed on that matter. In that context I welcome the positive expressions of support for PPPs across the House. Using a PPP spreads the risk involved in undertaking a project.

The general aim of any Government is to improve the delivery of public services every year. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. We need to continually find ways and means to improve the delivery, including fast tracking it and making it of better quality and greater durability, etc. Surrounding all these aspects is quality and value for money. Reviewing different ways and means of doing things can be challenging, particularly if they are new, as are PPPs. There are problems and these will continue into the future.

We must cast aside naiveté regarding this issue. We are dealing with a new methodology which, by and large, is being operated on a pilot basis, just as there are pilot projects to try to take on the huge challenge of special needs education and in various other areas of community development and child support. In recent years some PPPs have been viewed as ongoing pilot projects. While this has some negatives, it also has significant positives. It is up to the expertise of Government and the public service in partnership with the private partners to evaluate and bring them to greater efficiency and effectiveness.

PPPs contrast with the conventional way of doing things, which was for the public sector to manage projects and deliver the building, facilities, etc. The new approach has been used to varying degrees over the past 20 years, including the buildings provided for Government decentralisation in the late 1980s, and the Eastlink and Westlink toll bridges. We have problems with these and, as they are being addressed, will continue to have some problems to a lesser extent in the future. This does not take away from the principle of the overall merit of the approach.

The quality and extent of communication within this approach is important. The Government has communicated with the social partners on the PPP system and it was heartening to hear Senator O'Toole say that the unions have no difficulty with it. It is important that there is communication with the social partners to help each constituent of the partnership to deal with difficulties as they arise with this new concept and the challenges it presents. The social partners will then be prepared to take on the challenge because of the benefits that accrue in the delivery of public services. PPPs, if properly managed, will deliver improved public services more quickly, as has been done in the five schools, and at a lower long-term cost than the conventional approach.

Every PPP is compared on a cost benefit basis with the conventional method in accordance with strict rules of evaluation. Many people spoke about the quality and extent of evaluation and the need for it to be constantly re-appraised because this is an evolving situation. Where a PPP does not deliver these benefits, it will not be used.

The Government has decided that hundreds of beds will be delivered in community nursing homes to allow older patients who are now in acute hospital beds to get the level of focused care they need and deserve. This will be achieved as a result of the commitment of the Government to PPPs, with the support of the social partners and taxpayers' money. Urgent changes needed within the health service can, be facilitated through PPPs. The Minister for Health and Children recently expressed the view that she has other new initiatives in mind and anticipates that they will be reflected in the Estimates.

PPPs will speed up the delivery of quality motorways, roads, bridges and schools. Years ago the moaning on "Liveline" was about the state of the roads, but that has changed to moaning about road safety, and rightly so. We have moved on and progress has been made.

Everyone has referred to the Comptroller and Auditor General's comments on the project involving the five schools. Those comments set a realistic note for reviewing PPPs. These schools were built in three and a half years when the traditional approach would have taken five years and the time between signing the contracts and completion of the schools was under two years. That is an impressive achievement by any standards, irrespective of the criticisms made by the Comptroller and Auditor General, when one considers how much work is needed to deliver new schools to growing communities and to replace derelict schools that are beyond repair, of which there are many in the school building stock. Senator McHugh mentioned the potential for the use of PPPs on an accelerated basis, bearing in mind the lessons we have learned from the five school projects, a sentiment I support. I urge the Government to look at accelerating the PPP approach throughout the schools building programme. We must renew and provide new school building stock.

A major benefit for anyone interested in education is the manner in which the PPP model removes from principals and schools the drudgery of running the buildings. Their sole function now is the delivery of high-quality education for our children. The PPP model enables them to do that in a focused way and that is one of the system's major benefits.