Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Finance if he or any other Government Department has applied for funding to the European Investment Bank to part fund major capital intensive infrastructure projects to be initiated during the life time of the Government. [27670/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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My Department has no direct role in relation to capital investment projects. The Department of Public Expenditure & Reform has a role in terms of setting the overall capital investment framework and the basic principles to be observed for the appraisal, assessment, procurement and evaluation of projects. Individual Ministers are responsible for projects and programmes in their areas, within that overall framework. Decisions on the funding arrangements for those projects are also the responsibility of individual departments. Departments are obliged to seek the opinion of the National Development Finance Agency whose statutory role is to advise any State authority of what, in the opinion of the Agency, are the optimal means of financing the cost of public investment projects in order to achieve value for money. Details about the funding arrangements for individual projects can be obtained directly from the relevant Department. However, I am aware that the European Investment Bank has given provisional approval to co-finance a number of PPP projects in the transport and education sectors.