Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have come to public attention in recent years in Ireland with the impact of toll roads, the collapse of social-housing projects and their use in the provision of courts buildings, schools, water/waste water treatment plants, hospitals, light rail and other public infrastructure and services. This book provides a ground breaking and unique analysis of the development of such PPPs internationally, with a detailed focus on the rationale behind their introduction and outcomes in Ireland. The detailed evidence outlined from the author’s extensive research (including interviews with senior central and government officials, private sector, community and trade union representatives and the Irish Minister for Environment) highlights the important role PPPs are playing in the implementation of privatisation and neoliberalism. The book also provides considerable practical lessons from individual PPP projects. It is therefore an essential read for students, academics of politics, economics, sociology, geography and policy practitioners in Ireland, and further afield. It is of considerable interest to anyone concerned with the progress of Irish society, its economy and, indeed public services and governance internationally.

Prizes

Winner of Geographical Society of Ireland: Book of the Year 2014 (Ireland)

Dr Rory Hearne has written an erudite yet straightforward account of the impact of PPPs and he demonstrates that they have not consistently provided the stated benefits put forward by their promoters.

The book's core offering is a theoretical and empirical analysis of how PPPs are part of a wider ideological drive by government rather than meaningful and effective reform.

He successfully demonstrates how the roll out of PPPs internationally has been strongly influenced by neoliberal ideology and its proponent's approach to the state and public services.

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Rory Hearne is a community advocate and regeneration project co-ordinator for Barnardos Ireland and the Dolphin House Community Association