Vol. 501 No. 6
372 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he has authorised the participation by his Department or any relevant State body in any public private partnership; the number, if any, of these projects under way; if there are any possible public private partnerships under negotiation between his Department and private investors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6718/99]
To date I have not authorised participation by my Department or any State bodies in a public-private partnership as outlined recently by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, under his proposed pilot initiative for such projects, which as the Deputy is aware, relates primarily to a capital or infrastructural nature.
However, I have been encouraging a partnership approach to the development of the tourism sector in particular, where Bord Fáilte already has initiatives running involving strong involvement by the private sector, such as OTMI Ltd. The previous Government authorised the sale to the private sector of Gulliver, the technology driven tourist information and reservation system devloped jointly by Bord Fáilte (BFE) and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB), which still has a shareholding in the company.
