Irish people are familiar with their politicians and big business being embroiled in financial scandals and corruption.

But this Fianna Fail/PD government is involved in the biggest financial scandal this country has yet experienced - Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Reducing the role of the state in the provision of public services, such as transport and our road system, and replacing it with the private sector is one of the main ideological and political aims of this government - its neo-liberal agenda.

The government consistently claims that PPPs are better value for money for the tax payer and that the private sector can provide more efficient and better services than the public sector. The opposite is true. PPPs and the governments approach to its spending in general results in huge profits for the private sector and a monumental rip off of the PAYE tax payer.

The current National Development Plan allocated e6 billion for the building of roads, but the actual cost will be €18 billion. Even when inflation costs are factored out of the cost it is estimated that the average cost over-run for these projects is around 86%.

Internationally the average is 20%. These over runs are increasing the profits in the construction industry - the cement companies, the landowners and speculators - the vested interests and big business backers of Fianna Fail and the PDs. The construction industry has been lobbying for Public Private Partnerships and the government has said they will save the taxpayer money. Yet 30 year long toll road contracts are being handed out to private companies that will net them billions in profits. When the initial costs to the taxpayer is combined with the tolls, the public will pay enough money to build these roads four times over! So much for value for money, and never mind the traffic jams caused by the toll road plazas!

A massive amount of public money is being squandered by this government in order to subsidise and support their big business friends. And yet working class people have to endure the crisis in our hospital A&E departments, our kid's schools are crumbling and 50,000 people are on housing waiting lists. 30,000 nurses are balloting for strike action because the Health Service Executive are refusing to pay them a 3.5% pay rise as a reprimand for their protests about the crisis in our A&E departments. According to John Fitzgerald of the ESRI e1 billion would be enough to fund all the hospital beds we need to overcome the A&E crisis, or repair our schools. Yet the over run in costs for 30 government road projects was €2 billion, enough to solve both of these major problems.

Now the government is planning to introduce more public private partnerships for the building and running of our hospitals, schools, prisons and waste management. More golden opportunities for big business to enrich themselves at the taxpayers expense.

This government is a scandal and it has been exposed for what it is, a cabal who put the profits of big business before the needs of the people.

If you are sick of the rip off and tired of the right wing parties that do nothing to deal with the real problems facing working class people then you should contact the Socialist Party and find out how you can join us in building a socialist alternative to these capitalist cronies.