Vol. 525 No. 3
256 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the progress being made in the establishment of public private partnership projects within his Department as envisaged in the national development plan and any other plans considered in addition to the national development plan. [24896/00]
Good progress is being made in advancing the PPP programmes under the national development plan. In the areas for which I am responsible – roads, water services and waste management – pilot projects are being progressed in each sector.
In addition to the pilot programme, the NRA announced recently that a further tranche of major roads projects is to be carried out under PPP. A potential private finance input of the order of 850 million euros is anticipated for the 11 projects that have been announced to date out of a total target investment of 1.27 billion euros as set out in the NDP.
The publication of the water and sewerage services investment programme 2000-02 last July also highlighted the progress that is being made to bring forward PPP projects. This programme includes upwards of 100 projects that have been initially identified as having PPP potential.
Proposals for a number of smaller PPP projects are being considered by local authorities with financial assistance from the PPP fund. A sum of £1 million was allocated earlier in the year to help meet the start up costs of projects falling outside the main investment programmes. Applications for the second round of allocations under the PPP fund are due at the end of this month.
