Stakeholder engagement and the future of Irish public–private partnerships
| Author | Gail Sheppard,Matthias Beck |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320971692 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Stakeholder engagement
and the future of Irish
public–private
partnerships
Gail Sheppard
Technological University Dublin, Ireland
Matthias Beck
University College Cork, Ireland
Abstract
Building on recent works that stress the importance of stakeholder engagement in
partnerships, we propose a novel benchmarking framework for the evaluation of
public–private partnerships. This framework describes mutuality and the preservation
of organisational identity as the ideal characteristics of partnerships because they, in
turn, encourage stakeholder support for public–private partnerships. Applying this
framework to infrastructure public–private partnerships in Ireland, we note that
mutual accountability has been weakened following the financial crisis. Meanwhile, con-
sultation with clients such as key public–private partnership stakeholders, which would
help articulate organisational identities, remains patchy across the education, justice
and health public–private partnership that we investigate. Nonetheless, there are sec-
toral differences. In education, consultation centres on school principals while ignoring
teaching staff and trade unions. In justice, attention is focu sed primarily on judges.
Similarly, in health sector public–private partnerships, there is a strong focus on clini-
cians. Overall, private sector-driven consultation efforts are primarily pragmatic, with a
focus on preventing delays and the dissatisfaction of key clients who could prevent
future projects from materialising. We suggest that the combination of this calculated
approach to consultation, together with the delegation of public–private partnership
contracting to an arm’s-length government agency, is likely to promote a similar depo-
liticisation of Irish public–private partnerships as has been observed in other countries.
Corresponding author:
Gail Sheppard, Department of Accountancy, Finance and Professional Studies, TU Dublin, Tallaght, Dublin 24,
Ireland.
Email: gail.sheppard@tudublin.ie
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852320971692
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2022, Vol. 88(3) 843–861
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
We argue that the potentially harmful stakeholder disengagement that this might
encourage can be addressed through a concerted set of measures focusing on
improved transparency of decision-making, as well as frameworks that mandate
client and public consultation.
Points for practitioners
Research has highlighted the importance of mutual accountability and the preservation of
organisational identity in ensuring that public–private partnerships attract public partic-
ipation and receive public approval. We investigate public–private partnerships in educa-
tion, justice and health in Ireland, a country that is widely considered an exemplary
public–private partnership practitioner. We observe that consultation by private sector
public–private partnership participants with client organisations in these sectors is largely
motivated by a desire to prevent hold-ups and secure future business rather than seeking
to engage with a broadrange of users and stakeholders. Together with the existing lackof
evidence of benefits from public–private partnerships, this situation is likely to lead to
dissatisfaction with the policy. Indeed, political parties critical of public–private partner-
ships have been able to significantly increase their share of the vote in a recent national
election. Our conclusion is that such dissatisfaction is avoidable if the Irish government
improves transparency around public–private partnership decision-making while
strengthening requirements for public and client consultation.
Keywords
accountability, mutuality, public–private partnership, stakeholders, sustainability
Introduction
The use of public–private partnerships (PPPs) to procure infrastructure and services
has evolved to encompass many set-ups, making a definition difficult (Akintoye et al.,
2015). PPPs are commonly understood as long-term contractual arrangements
between governments and private partners (Hodge and Greve, 2018). PPP generally
refers to a range of public–private collaborations, and we use the term ‘PPP’ for
projects that include what were known as private finance initiat ives (PFIs) in the UK.
PPPs were launched in Ireland in 1998. The first projects were in education,
followed by roads and, more recently, justice and primary care. Why Ireland
introduced PPP is unclear (Hearne, 2009). Privatisation policies in Ireland had
been driven by pragmatism and initially centred on restructuring state-owned
enterprises (Palcic and Reeves, 2004). Minister for Finance McCreevy, who intro-
duced PPP, wanted to replicate UK-style new public management reforms and saw
PPP as a way of doing so (Sheppard and Beck, 2016). PPPs were also expected by
advisory bodies to bring efficiency gains (NESC, 1999). Over time, these
844 International Review of Administrative Sciences 88(3)
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