Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 407: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason the tender to review the effectiveness of the Prison Service's capital expenditure programme specifically excludes all PPP projects from examination; if there are plans to assess PPP projects using the same criteria as non-PPP capital expenditures; if so, when and by whom; and if no such plans exist, the reason he is shielding PPP contracts from the oversight being used to evaluate public projects. [18100/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Expenditure Review Initiative forms part of the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) programme which seeks to reform and enhance financial management procedures within the Public Service. The tender for the Capital Expenditure Review by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is in accordance with the standard procedures as laid down by the Department of Finance.

The tender undertaken by the IPS seeks to review major capital expenditure projects completed between 2000 and 2005. There were no Public Private Partnership ( PPP) projects undertaken by the IPS during this period. The reference in the tender was made for information purposes for potential bidders and not with any intention of excluding projects. The only PPP projects currently under detailed consideration are the replacement of the Mountjoy complex at the Thornton Hall site in North County Dublin and the development of a prison complex on Spike Island to cover the Munster area.

All PPP projects comply with the procedures issued by the Department of Finance in relation to Capital Expenditure and PPPs. As a strong advocate of value for money myself I would support the Expenditure Review process. In the future, if any further expenditure review is proposed for this area, it would definitely include completed PPP projects.