John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when the number of bundles of schools to be offered to the market as part of the latest PPP school building announcement will be known; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32717/05]

Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 171: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when the latest round of PPP school projects will go to market; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32716/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 158 and 171 together.

On 29 September 2005 I announced plans for the provision of 23 new post-primary and four primary schools through public private partnership procurement in the period 2005 to 2009. This is one of the most ambitious building programmes ever undertaken in the education sector.

My Department, in consultation with the National Development Finance Agency, is engaged in finalising the content of the first bundle of schools to be delivered under the current programme and I will be announcing the schools in the bundle in the near future. It is expected that the NDFA will be in a position to go to the market with this bundle in the first half of 2006. I will be launching the remaining bundles on a rolling basis thereafter as part of the four-year delivery plan.