Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

344.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a schedule of all contracts they have and/or had with a company in the past 25 years to date (details supplied); the agreed contract cost; the ultimate contract cost including extras, design changes, conciliation, claims etc; project name/title; and the name of the body responsible for the delivery of projects where responsibility has been devolved. [25471/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Since 2020, my department has invested in the region of €4.8 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 800 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 30 new school buildings. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.2bn. I also recently announced that close to 90 projects, including 28 new school buildings, would be authorised to proceed from tender stage to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025. In total, around €800 million will be invested in these projects under the department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for essential classroom accommodation. Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 550,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate. This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

While it is not feasible to check the position on all school building projects delivered over the last 25 years, they are by their nature generally procured on a standalone basis and undertaken by small to medium-sized contractors with many of the projects costing less than €1m each. As a Tier 1 contractor, the company referenced by the Deputy, would not therefore typically be expected to be involved in these standalone projects which are primarily delivered on a devolved basis by individual school authorities. Nonetheless, Tier 1 contractors, including the company referenced, do engage in the schools sector when projects are bundled as part of a procurement strategy.

Following a public procurement process undertaken in 2020, the company referenced by the Deputy was included on the Department’s Design & Build framework as part of a joint venture comprising two contractors. Contracts awarded to companies on this framework are in accordance with the Government’s standard Design and Build form of contract. In 2021, four school building projects were awarded to this joint venture, with the company referenced responsible for delivering three of these projects which are listed in the table below:

Further contracts will be awarded to any of the companies on this Design and Build framework in accordance with public procurement criteria. In this regard, the next cohort of projects being delivered under this framework involve 10 new schools split across two bundles for which the procurement process is near completion.

Historically, the Department has also used the Public-Private-Partnership model (PPP) to deliver bundles of school building projects. To date, the Department has entered into six separate contracts to design, build, finance, maintain, and operate bundles of schools under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. PPPs are structured arrangements between public sector bodies and private sector investors to provide infrastructure projects that would typically be delivered through traditional procurement methods, with all related construction expenditure paid upfront. The Department finances these costs through monthly unitary charges over 25 years, commencing upon the completion of construction.

Two PPP contracts were awarded to the company referenced by the Deputy: The 1^stcontract awarded was for the Schools Bundle 3 (SB3) PPP project, consisting of 8 schools in November 2012. The value of this contact was €416.9m payable over a 25 year period. The second contract awarded was for Schools Bundle 4 (SB4) PPP project, consisting of 4 schools, in December 2014. The value of this contact was €214m payable over a 25 year period.

The PPP Schools Bundle 3 contract relates to the following schools:

• Athlone Community College
• Ard Scoil na Mara, Tramore
• Ballinamore Community School
• Colaiste Ailigh, Letterkenny
• Creagh College, Gorey
• Merlin College, Galway
• Merlin Woods, Galway
• Scoil na Trionoide Naofa, Doon

• St Mary’s Dundalk
• Skibbereen Community School
• St. Joseph’s Tulla
• Comeragh College, Carrick-on-Suir