Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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134. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a cost benefit analysis has been carried out on the use of public private partnnerships to build schools; the number of such projects in the future that will include the management and maintenance of schools; the cost of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3375/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Capital Appraisal Guidelines of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform require projects to be appraised. This involves validating need and consideration of possible solutions including, where appropriate, the PPP option.

To ensure value for money with PPPs, 4 tests are required to be undertaken during the procurement process. The determination of the Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is the most crucial of these. The PSB provides a robust financial framework for the achievement of value for money. It is presented as the full estimated cost of delivering the project through conventional means. At the tender evaluation stage, the highest ranking bid is compared to the PSB. Tenders lower than the PSB are judged to deliver value for money. Higher tenders have to be looked at very carefully.

Apart from 6 school projects that are at invitation to negotiate (ITN) stage, there are no plans currently to proceed with further school PPPs.