Prior to the first modern period of devolution (1999-2002), PPP had made barely any impression in NI, despite its growing significance in the rest of the UK. The capital value of PPP schemes signed in NI between 1992/93 and 1999/2000 was less than £100 million, compared to £4 billion in Great Britain (HM Treasury 2008). However, in the early days of devolution, NI political parties began to regard PPPs as a potentially important means of increasing investment in public infrastructure.