“In a well-researched study, Hearne investigates the impact of neoliberal economic theory on Irish public policy in the form of Public Private Partnerships. Through case studies on infrastructure in the education and housing sectors, he shows effectively how investment risks were ultimately borne more by local communities and the central government than by the much-valorized circuits of private capital. The results are sobering and, in many ways, unfortunate”. – WJ
“Public-private partnerships are one of the defining policy innovations associated with neoliberalisation. In this superbly researched book, Rory Hearne clinically dissects their assumptions and failings through detailed case studies. This book has important lessons for both students of these policies and their practitioners”. – PC
“This timely and carefully researched investigation about Public Private Partnerships in Ireland analyses the effects of allowing public assets to be treated as commodities for trade in international markets through empirical case studies about the Irish educational and social housing sectors. Hearne convincingly questions the rhetoric of ‘successful’ private-public partnerships, questioning the privatisation of public service provision that enables global multinationals to profit while local communities, trade unions and the most vulnerable in our society suffer”. – KT
“This exemplary study of the origins, rationale and legacies of Public Private Partnership in modern Ireland demonstrates how public assets and services have been ‘captured’ for private investment and accumulation for corporations and global funds, and moved away from public ownership. With insights and lessons also from Canada, Australia and the UK, Rory Hearne’s book should be required reading for anyone interested in the rise of privatisation and neoliberalism in international politics and state institutions in recent decades”. – NC
2014 GSI Book Awards Committee:
Dr. Pádraig Carmody, Dept. of Geography, Trinity College Dublin
Dr. Nessa Cronin, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway
Dr. William Jenkins, Dept. of Geography, York University, Canada
Dr. Karen E. Till, Dept. of Geography, Maynooth University