Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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447. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the public sector benchmark for National Maritime College of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56096/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The development of a Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is now a key part of the Value for Money assessment prior to proceeding with a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. The PSB represents the full estimated cost, including risk to the State of delivering the project using “traditional” public sector procurement.

The National Maritime College of Ireland, which is part of Munster Technological University, is a PPP project that pre-dates the publication of PSB guidance.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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448. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the public sector benchmark for the Cork School of Music; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56097/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The development of a Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is now a key part of the Value for Money assessment prior to proceeding with a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. The PSB represents the full estimated cost, including risk to the State of delivering the project using “traditional” public sector procurement.

The Cork School of Music, which is part of Munster Technological University, is a PPP project that pre-dates the publication of PSB guidance.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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449. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the public sector benchmark for Carlow Institute of Further Education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56098/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the deputy is aware, the Carlow Institute of Further Education & Training was delivered as part of the School Bundle 5 Public Private Partnership (PPP) project.

The development of a Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is now a key part of the Value for Money assessment prior to proceeding with a PPP project. The PSB represents the full estimated cost, including risk to the State of delivering the project using “traditional” public sector procurement.

Current policy is that where the public sector is likely to procure a similar project in the same or other sectors in the foreseeable future, the PSB (or any elements thereof) should not be released for an appropriate period of time after the contract has been awarded to allow any commercial sensitivities to elapse.

In this regard, the PSB for the School Bundle 5 PPP project will be due to publish shortly.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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450. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the practice in the education sector of allowing approximately five years to elapse after the award of a public private partnership contract before a public sector benchmark is published in order to allow for a reasonable level of transparency and political accountability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56099/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the deputy is aware, the development of a Public Sector Benchmark (PSB) is now a key part of the Value for Money assessment prior to proceeding with a PPP project. The PSB represents the full estimated cost, including risk to the State of delivering the project using “traditional” public sector procurement.

It is the practice in the education sector to allow approximately five years to elapse after award of a PPP contract before a PSB (or any elements thereof) is published in order to allow any commercial sensitivities to elapse. This policy provides the appropriate protection where the public sector is likely to procure a similar project in the same or other sectors in the foreseeable future. The timing of publication may also depend on whether there is another similar PPP programme in procurement and a judgement must be made as to whether the publication of the PSB might influence the bidding strategies of tenderers.

In this regard, there are no plans to review this practice at present.