Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to debate this topic. Some time ago I raised the PPP pilot scheme for school building. Within the Department of Education and Science, the person with responsibility for PPPs outlined that there was an unacceptable overspend of between 8% and 13% when compared with the traditional construction method. The criticism of the pilot project as it bore fruit in the case of the five schools indicates that the Department has done something wrong. I welcome the PPP idea but when individual Departments cannot monitor and evaluate them, the idea must be re-examined.

The Department of Education and Science is not the only Department in this situation. Senator Fitzgerald mentioned the lower long-term costs but I do not see how they can be assessed for the building and running of the schools when there was no prior evaluation. The valuation now stands at €283 million over the 25-year period and the Comptroller and Auditor General has clearly stated that is not value for money. It is time to re-assess the situation.

What is happening with the Cork School of Music? Will the Minister of State indicate if the original company can sell on the contract to others? The original company got into difficulties and it was supposed to sell the contract to a French company but it is now with a German company. If we are going that way, the initial contracting process is at fault. Many aspects of the PPP system must be tightened up.

If we want to identify an area of excessive profiteering we need look no further than the roads. One example, often cited, is the Westlink toll bridge. In saying this I do not refer to traffic delays at certain hours. The bridge opened in 1990 at an estimated cost of £38 million and to date €300 million has been collected in tolls, a return of 790% to the investor. This is proven fact. How can that be justified? What went wrong or who is at fault? It is excessive profiteering in the extreme and it is ongoing for a period of 35 years.

It is proposed that the planned new motorway between Ballinasloe and Galway city will be tolled under a PPP agreement. The Government is again imposing an additional penalty on an already overstretched motoring public. If that is what the Government wants to do, it should be clearly stated. If additional costs are to be added to the motorist, let this be said. The Government should not just introduce another tax by stealth, as it has in the past.