http://hdl.handle.net/2262/62039 2017-11-03T02:58:10Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/58482 The only game in town: Public Private Partnerships in the Irish water services sector Reeves, Eoin Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) transfer significant responsibility for infrastructure and public service delivery to the private sector. This raises questions in relation to accountability in the context of PPP. An important accountability mechanism is the Value for Money (VFM) assessment which procuring authorities in Ireland must conduct prior to adoption of PPP. This paper examines the application of VFM appraisal procedures in the case of the water services sector. As the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, considers PPP as the preferred model of procurement, VFM assessments fail to deliver an acceptable level of accountability. The result is a mono-culture of PPP procurement in the water services sector. Policy paper 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/58481 How are Irish households coping with their mortgage repayments? information from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions McCarthy, Yvonne; McQuinn, Kieran This paper uses information contained within the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) to examine the ability of Irish households to sustain their mortgage repayments. We calculate mortgage repayment to income (MRTI) ratios for a representative sample of Irish households and examine the distribution of this ratio across the sample. In particular, we stratify information on marital, work and educational status along with household composition according to this MRTI. We also examine the distribution of information on household mortgages such as the source, the interest rate paid, the age and tenure, and the monthly repayment of the mortgage according to the same ratio. Finally, the distributional implications for the MRTI of a significant unemployment and interest rate shock are also examined. Policy paper 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/58480 An economic analysis of the Public Transport Regulation Act, 2009 Barrett, Sean D. This paper analyses the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, published on September 8, 2009. The Act provides for the regulation of public bus passenger services, changes the name of the Dublin Transport Authority to the National Transport Authority and abolishes the Commission for Taxi Regulation. The economic importance of the Act is that it retains the restrictions on new market entry to the bus sector and continues to subsidise the sector by direct award subsidies. The policy options foregone by the Act are the alternatives of competition in the market by independent bus operators and competition through competitive tendering to provide bus services where subsidies are deemed necessary. Policy paper 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/58453 Estimating the impact of immigration on wages in Ireland Barrett, Alan; Bergin, Adele; Kelly, Elish We estimate the impact of immigration on the wages of natives in Ireland applying the technique proposed by Borjas (2003). Under this method, the labour market is divided into a number of skill cells, where the cells are defined by groups with similar ages and levels of education (or age and occupation). Regression analysis is then employed to assess whether the average wages of natives across skill cells is affected by the share of immigrants across cells. When the cells are based on education/age, our results suggest a negative relationship between native wages and immigrant shares. However, the opposite appears to hold when the cells are based on occupation/age. These contradictory findings suggest that care should be exercised when applying this method as inaccurate impressions of the impact of immigration on wages may arise. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z