Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a note on PPPs. There are 15 PPP schools currently in operation located throughout the State. There are a further eight schools, bundle 3, in construction, and two further bundles, 4 and 5, announced by the Government to proceed last July. These bundles will deliver a total of 12 schools. The vast majority of schools delivered through the PPP process are post-primary schools because of their size, which is much larger than primary schools and more amenable to the PPP process.

Approval has now been given for bundles 4 and 5 by the National Development Finance Agency to proceed to publish the contract notices for the projects and invite expressions of interest from suitable consortia for pre-qualification. Our intention is to engage further with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on a further pipeline of schools. The attraction from our point of view of PPPs is that they project manage the whole process. It is like buying something on hire purchase. It is more expensive but the contract is maintained for its duration. That is all the information I have at the current time.