There are over 40 public private partnerships projects underway at the monent according to Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy. 'A number of projects are in train and a number are already on stream,' he told RTÉ news.
'We have tried to learn from the success and mistakes of other jurisdictions in this area,' he said after addressing the Public Affairs Ireland New Perspectives on Public Private Partnerships seminar today.
At the conference Aidan Walsh, partner at PwC, said that the PPP process provides an opportunity to for the Government to deliver significant value for money together with much needed capital to the public sector. He said: 'It combines botht he efficiencies of the private sector with experience of the public sector.'
And according to a survey by employers group IBEC private firms have little or no faith in the government's plans for public private partnerships. Nearly 94% of respondents to the survey described progress on PPPs as 'poor' or 'very poor'.
According to IBEC there is a lot of uncertainty about the process and many members said there is a lack of political support for PPPs and a lack of public sector expertise.
