Private partnerships ‘need scrutiny’

THE Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed alarm yesterday over the way that hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers’ money is poured into private partnerships without proper parliamentary scrutiny.

PAC chairman Michael Noonan insisted watertight accountability was needed to ensure the investment is being used in a “kosher” way.

The cross-party committee expressed dissatisfaction with Finance Minister Brian Cowen’s rejection of calls for it to be allowed to investigate the commercial end of such projects.

The committee put itself on a collision course with Mr Cowen by launching a probe into how other national parliaments oversee such expenditure.

“Full access would give assurances to the public that everything is kosher.

“It is not good enough that huge sums of public money can be spent and elected members have no access to the role of private partners,” Fine Gael TD Mr Noonan said.

Mr Noonan said he appreciated the commercial considerations involved, but stressed that American and British legislators were allowed such scrutiny and agreed to keep sensitive information secret.

He said the present set up meant that the spending of “vast” sums of taxpayers’ money was not fully accountable to Ireland’s democratic system.

Labour’s finance spokesperson Joan Burton said hundreds of millions of euro a year were being spent on such Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in road building and other capital projects and greater accountability needed to be introduced into the system.

In a written submission to the PAC, Mr Cowen insisted current safeguards, such as allowing the State’s financial watchdog the Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell to access all Government and private sector information, were adequate.

The PAC heard from Mr Purcell that the Government should use its “dominant” market position to ensure it got better value for money from outside consultants.

The Government was widely criticised last year when it was revealed that it had spent over €50 million on consultants involved in the controversial PPARS computer system for the health service.