The most recent Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement for delivery of higher education infrastructure relates to the East and Central Quads at Grangegorman. The Grangegorman PPP project provides state of the art facilities for the TU Dublin Colleges of Sciences and Health, Arts and Tourism and for the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Both the East Quad and Central Quad are completed and operational.
Other higher education projects delivered by way of PPP contract are the National Maritime College of Ireland and the Cork School of Music, both of which are part of Munster Technological University. These projects are now well over half way through the PPP contract period.
In the case of all higher education PPP projects, the PPP Company is granted a licence that is necessary to allow it to operate and maintain the building for the period of the contract. The building remains in the ownership of the State during and after the period of the contract.
Table 1 below provides the information requested by the Deputy in relation to total project cost and contract duration for each of the higher education PPP projects. Once a PPP contract has been signed, the cost information is published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on www.ppp.gov.ie . The costs include the cost of design, construction and finance, as well as the cost of operating, maintaining and conducting lifecycle works to the buildings over the 25 year operational period of the contract.
Table 1
|
Name of PPP Contract
|
National Maritime College of Ireland
|
Cork School of Music
|
Grangegorman(Central & East Quads)
|
|
Year of Contract Commencement
|
2004
|
2007
|
East Quad Q4 2020Central Quad Q1 2021
|
|
Year of Contract Expiry
|
2029
|
2032
|
2046
|
|
Total Project Cost (as at end 2020)
|
€187.4m
|
€219.2m
|
€589.8m
|
With regard to the cost of delivering the projects using Exchequer funds, the development of a Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is now a key part of the Value for Money assessment prior to proceeding with a PPP project (the MTU projects pre-date PSB guidance). The PSB represents the full estimated cost, including risk to the State of delivering the project using “traditional” public sector procurement.
It is the practice in the education sector to allow approximately five years to elapse after award of a PPP contract before a PSB is published in order to allow any commercial sensitivities to elapse. The timing of publication may also depend on whether there is another similar PPP programme in procurement and a judgement must be made as to whether the publication of the PSB might influence the bidding strategies of tenderers. The PSB for the Grangegorman PPP project has therefore not yet been published.
Finally, the Deputy may also wish to be aware that one further education college, Carlow Institute of Further Education, was delivered under the Schools Bundle 5 PPP contract.
