Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2021
280. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the public sector benchmarking exercise used to evaluate and award the first bundle of social housing public private partnership homes will be published. [47511/21]
View answerThe Social Housing Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme consists of 3 Bundles of sites that will deliver in the region of 1,500 social homes and there are robust governance arrangements in place to oversee implementation. Building on the successful model of social housing PPPs, Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland commits to increasing their use to deliver social housing. Securing value for money (VfM) is an overarching consideration throughout the PPP procurement process and the Central PPP Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) provides guidance in relation to PPP projects to achieve this objective.
The Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is an essential part of any PPP project. It contains commercially sensitive information in relation to the methodology used for costing public sector projects and for the pricing of risks by public sector bodies. In accordance with the DPER guidelines (Guidelines for the use of Public Private Partnerships), the final PSB, or any elements thereof, is not made public during the tendering process nor where it is intended to procure further similar projects in the near future (e.g. subsequent project bundles as part of an ongoing PPP programme).
Construction on Bundle 1 of the social housing PPP programme is now complete and the remaining homes in Bundle 2 will be delivered later this year. My Department and the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) are currently working with the relevant Local Authorities including Dublin City Council as Lead Authority to progress the third bundle of sites in this PPP programme. Design development for the project is underway and the statutory consent process is expected to commence in Q4 2021 while tenders will be invited from PPP consortia towards the end of this year.
As Bundle 3 will follow the same structure as Bundles 1 and 2 and given the potential impact on value for money for the State, it is not appropriate to release the PSB for Bundle 1 at this time. However, and in accordance with the DPER guidelines, once an appropriate period of time has elapsed and the commercial sensitivity of the information on the project is no longer an issue (having regard also to any other similar PPP projects which may be in pre-procurement), the PSB should be made public. My Department will follow these guidelines in relation to the social housing PPP programme.
