Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason the national development plan utilises public private partnerships in view of the concerns regarding the cost of these projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13217/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Development Plan 2018 – 2027 summarises the key findings and recommendations agreed as part of the recent PPP review - the detailed report of which will be published shortly.

As noted in the NDP, PPPs have been very useful in the past in facilitating the delivery of important infrastructure projects. This was particularly the case when the Exchequer was seriously constrained in terms of its ability to fund infrastructure directly, given their use of private finance, on an off-balance sheet basis. This enabled projects to proceed which would not otherwise have been deliverable on the basis of Exchequer funding alone.

In ensuring Departments obtain the best value-for-money from public capital investment, PPPs, just as traditionally procured projects, are subject to the same robust and rigorous project appraisal process as traditionally procured projects. All projects over €20m are required under the Public Spending Cote to be subject to a Cost Benefit Analysis or Cost Effectiveness Analysis. In addition, all public investment projects of this value must also be referred to the National Development Finance Agency for advice in terms of the options for financing and procuring the projects.

As outlined in the NDP, PPPs will continue to feature as a procurement option available to Government for appropriately structured projects which demonstrate value for money over a traditional procurement option and which meet the robust and rigorous tests for project appraisal that apply to all public investment projects under the Public Spending Code.

While there are a number of previously announced PPP projects in the pipeline for delivery over the coming years, no further specific additional projects have been identified in the NDP for procurement by PPP at this stage. Rather, it is essential that projects are judged on their merits and if procurement by PPP is found to offer better value-for-money than traditional procurement in the case of individual projects identified for delivery in the NDP, then they should be selected and progressed by the relevant sponsoring Department or agency on that basis.