Ceist:
72 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Finance if he will report on progress made in instigating public private partnerships; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4687/01]
Written Answers. - Public Private Partnerships.
Good progress is being made in advancing the public private partnership programme initiated by the launch of the pilot projects on 1 June 1999. PPP projects are now being developed across most of the main sectors of public capital investment. The projects are on schedule with all key milestones being met.
In the roads sector, a total of eleven schemes in the national road improvement programme have been identified by the National Roads Authority (NRA) for development as PPPs. These are concentrated on five major interurban routes to and from Dublin and comprise motorways, high quality dual carriageways and major river crossings that amount to approximately 230km. in total.
The three PPP road projects announced in the pilot PPP programme announced on 1 June 1999 are the N25 Waterford bypass, incorporating a river crossing; the Limerick southern ring road phase two and Shannon Estuary crossing; the construction of a second bridge at the West-Link on the M50 in Dublin.
In line with the Government's commitment to develop a stream of PPP projects creating an attractive market for PPP investment in Ireland, a further eight PPP road projects were announced in June 2000. The additional schemes are as follows:
N1/M1 Dublin – Border route
Dundalk western by pass
N3 Cavan to Dublin route
Clonee-Kells
N4/N6 Galway to Dublin route
Kilcock-Kinnegad (N4)
Oranmore-N6 East (N6)
N7 Limerick to Dublin route
Portlaoise-Castletown*
Nenagh-Limerick
N8 Cork to Dublin route
Portlaoise-Culahill*
Fermoy By-Pass
*Portlaoise-Castletown (N7) and Portlaoise-Culahill (N8), although separate schemes, will be placed as one PPP contract.
The first two road projects in the marketplace are the Waterford bypass and river crossing and the N4 Kilcock-Kinnegad scheme which were published in the OJEC in December 2000. There has been an excellent response from the market and about 12 submissions for each project have been received by the NRA. These submissions involve almost 50 companies in joint ventures with significant overseas interest from Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Austria and the UK. The submissions are now being evaluated with a view to shortlisting four tenderers for each project by May 2001.
The contract for the second West-Link Bridge is in the process of being finalised between the NRA and National Toll Roads. NTR requested tenders for the construction of the bridge in October 2000 and the construction tenders received are now being evaluated with a view to commencing construction by May this year. The statutory approval process for the other eight projects is currently under way with a view to a further five projects being launched into the market this year and the remaining two following early in 2002.
The pilot projects for the education sector were launched in July 2000 and consist of the refur bishment-rebuild of the Cork School of Music and a bundle of five new build post-primary schools located in various parts of the country. Final bids from the three short-listed candidates for each of the two projects are being evaluated and preferred bidders will be appointed in March 2001. Consultants have now been appointed to assist in developing a National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy, County Cork, as a PPP project.
In the public transport sector, a competition for the award of a contract to operate the first light rail line, Luas, in Dublin was advertised in the OJEC in January with the intention of selecting an operator by the end of 2001. Consultants have also been appointed to assist in planning the delivery of the Dublin Metro as a PPP.
In the environment area, upwards of 100 projects with PPP potential have been identified by the Department of the Environment and Local Government under the water and sewerage programme 2000-02. To date 18 projects have been approved for development as PPPs and several of these projects are now at an advanced procurement stage. Two water supply projects are being developed as pilot PPP projects – Ballymore Eustace serving Dublin and Clareville serving Limerick – and both are expected to come to the market in the second quarter of this year. A pilot project in the solid waste management area is also under way in Dublin.