Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 602: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has carried out an assessment of the five schools constructed under public private partnership; if so, if that assessment will be made available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32057/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has implemented a rolling review, evaluation process and monitoring of the operation phase of the school bundle public private partnership project. This process takes the form of regular meetings with the school principals, both as a group and individually, regular meetings with Jarvis personnel and detailed reviews of the monthly reports for each school provided by Jarvis as provided for under the project agreement. An interim evaluation report is being undertaken on each of the five schools that covers the operation of the contract on the ground and any issues of concern that have arisen.

In terms of educational impact, it is planned to include each of the schools in the rolling programme of whole school evaluation. From my Department's monitoring of the contract to date, it is clear that the output and service requirements contained in the project agreement are being complied with. While there were some problems in the early days, particularly around the delivery and quality of some items of equipment for specialist classrooms, these were ironed out between the Department, schools and the operator in accordance with the contract arrangements.