Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 September 2018
28. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of national road projects to be commenced between September 2018 and the end of 2019; the number that will be financed by way of public private partnership; and his views on the public private partnership financing model for national road building projects. [37878/18]
View answerAs Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme. Once policy and funding arrangements have been put in place, under the Roads Acts 1993-2015, the planning, design and operation of individual roads is a matter for the relevant road authority in relation to local and regional roads, or for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in conjunction with the local authorities concerned in relation to national roads.
I understand from TII that there are a number of Capital Roads Programmes in development and noting the above position, I have referred the Deputy's question to TII for a direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within 10 working days.
Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have made a significant contribution to the delivery of the Capital Roads Programme across the country.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) review, published in parallel with the National Development Plan, found that PPPs have been very useful in facilitating the delivery of important infrastructure. 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.
Looking to the future and given the significant increase in planned Exchequer capital investment over the coming years, which will see public investment in Ireland as a share of national income moving to among the highest in the EU, the PPP review concluded that PPPs can play a very important role in the delivery of public capital investment projects contained in the National Development Plan.
Noting the benefits that PPPs can deliver, the review recommended that PPPs remain as an effective procurement option for appropriate public capital investment projects within the suite of capital investment mechanisms available to Departments. It is important that PPPs should be assessed on a level-playing field basis as compared to traditional procurement. All large-scale projects included in the new National Development Plan should, therefore, continue to be assessed in terms of suitability for procurement by PPP and/or alternative financing, in particular projects which involve user charges or which offer the potential to generate significant third party income.
It is essential that these projects continue to be judged on their merits and if PPPs offer better value-for-money than traditional procurement, I would encourage that they are considered and selected on that basis.
