Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 65: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he is satisfied that the costings made in relation to the proposed Ringsend incineration plant in 1997 are still valid; and if he intends to reassess the financial analysis and costing model of the incineration process in view of the possibility that a range of costs may have been omitted from the original costings. [22486/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The project in question is being advanced by Dublin City Council, acting on behalf of the local authorities in the Dublin region whose regional waste management plan identifies the need for the facility concerned.

The initial costings drawn up in 1997 related to outline assessment of the thermal treatment option. The site in Ringsend had not been identified at that stage. The 1997 projections prepared by the City Council are not a baseline for assessing the value for money in relation to this project.

The necessarily protracted procurement process, by way of public private partnership, for the proposed Ringsend plant has however involved a very high degree of financial analysis and careful costing. The requirements of the public private partnership procurement process include analysis by the National Development Finance Agency of a project's financial parameters in order to assure value for money. Furthermore, both a public sector benchmark (the notional cost if a project were to be developed purely by the public sector), and an affordability cap (the level at which a procurement process should be abandoned and the project delivered by other means) are set in respect of projects to be delivered through public private partnership.

My Department's role, as I have already indicated, was confined to reviewing the procurement process and ensuring that it had been properly and rigorously completed in accordance with the public private partnership guidelines and general procurement rules.

In that review, my Department found that the proposed waste to energy project came within the predetermined affordability cap and the public sector benchmark, meaning that its delivery via public private partnership is more efficient than other alternatives.