Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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193. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the completion of the ten schools and educational facilities that were linked to a company (details supplied). [22127/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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TheSchools Bundle 5 PPP Project encompasses five school buildings and one further education college across four sites in Bray, Wexford, Carlow and Kells.  Under the PPP arrangement, the PPP company, InspiredSpaces, had a construction works contract with Carillion Construction Ltd, which further sub-contracted to Sammon Contracting Ireland Ltd (SCIL).

When Carillion Construction Ltd went into liquidation, their works contract was terminated. DIF, one of the shareholders in the PPP company, tendered for a replacement contractor for the completion of the buildings. DIF was working towards the delivery of all school buildings by the coming school year.  However, the appointment of an examiner to SCIL last month has added complexity to this process and it is not yet clear the extent to which this will impact on achievement of that timeline. 

While our clear focus remains on getting the new schools delivered as quickly as possible, the Department has been engaging with the relevant school authorities in relation to contingency plans to mitigate against any issues arising from delays in the delivery of the new school buildings.

Works on the Maynooth post-primary campus are proceeding to schedule with a completion date of May 2019. Contracts were terminated on 8 of May for work on projects in St. Colman’s Community College, Middleton, and Coláiste an Chraoibhin, Fermoy, in Cork in the absence of agreement or a viable plan from the contractor to finish out the projects. The Design Teams for these two projects are now preparing schedules of work necessary to complete the projects as quickly as possible.

The contract for the finishing out works at Gaelscoil Bharra, where the Department of Education and Skills is the client, was also terminated on 8 of May and the Design Team is carrying out a similar exercise for this project as is being carried out for the Cork projects.  

I have asked that a critical path for each school be prepared, with a view to completing each stage in the process as quickly as possible.