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Schools Building Projects.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 March 2004

Tuesday, 30 March 2004

Questions (12)

Tom Hayes

Question:

126 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has satisfied himself with the operation of schools constructed under the public private partnership system; if he has further satisfied himself with the success of the PPP system utilised for the construction of schools to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9665/04]

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Written answers

The contract for the first pilot education PPP in Ireland, a bundle of five post-primary schools, was signed in November 2001 with Jarvis Projects. Construction of the schools was completed by the end of December 2002, four of the schools ahead of schedule while the fifth was signed off as scheduled demonstrating clearly that timely delivery in the construction phase is one of the attractions of this form of procurement.

At the outset it is important to stress that in giving the go ahead for the first bundle of schools the Government wanted to explore and test this procurement model with a view to further and wider use. The Department's interest in participating in the PPP pilot programme arose primarily for four reasons. The first key reason was to test value for money of school provision over a longer period than construction. Second, we wanted to get new ideas on school design through an output-based approach, and third, we wanted to see better usage of school buildings outside of school hours. Also, we wanted to test how the model could allow school principals to concentrate to a greater extent on their core educational-management functions if relieved of buildings and services management issues.

By definition the value for money test over the full life cycle of the buildings can ultimately be fully evaluated only with the passage of time and when assumptions about residual values and useful remaining life at the end of 25 years are tested in reality. It is however possible to make some preliminary judgements on the operation of the schools to date. These are based on my Department's initial evaluation of the project which involves regular meetings with the management of each school in order to get updates on their operation and contract performance by Jarvis.

In his budget speech the Minister for Finance provided €500 million for PPP developments in the education sector within a five year multi-annual capital envelope. In publishing the 2004 building programme in December last I indicated that by this summer I will be setting out a multi-annual framework for the school building programme and that this will include the further use of PPPs. The outcome of ongoing evaluation and assessment by my Department of the existing projects and the experience gained in the pilot phase will be applied going forward in order to both build on and refine the initial positive experience of the PPP approach to procurement of school buildings.

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