Carillion schools handover
Deputy Joan Burton raised concern that completed school buildings in several counties were not being handed over after the Carillion collapse, leaving communities unable to occupy them. The Minister said the consortium partner must complete the PPP projects before payment is made and that the State was not responsible for finishing them.
This morning a damning report was published by the British Houses of Parliament on the collapse of the Carillion company, leaving debts of over £9 billion. Carillion has significant contracts in the schools system in Ireland, including school buildings in Wexford, Wicklow, Meath and Carlow which are actually finished. Is the Minister going to make arrangements so that the school community in Loreto in Wexford, for example, can enter the finished property? Teachers had already put their equipment in but it has now been taken out again. It now appears that the school community may have to wait another year while the Department of Education and Skills remains lost in a fog and is unable to act. At the height of the Celtic tiger-----
Comment on this
Even when the Celtic tiger was beginning to collapse, the then Taoiseach Brian Cowen could make arrangements to allow school communities to occupy properties but that seems to be impossible on this Government's watch.
Comment on this
I am aware of the report by the British Parliament relating to the audit companies involved with Carrillion in the UK and obviously we will study that with interest. In terms of the individual schools, it remains the case that the Dutch Infrastructure Fund, DIF, which is the remaining partner in the consortium that is delivering these PPP projects has an obligation to hand over the schools in completed form before it will receive any payment. Under the PPP contract, DIF is obliged to do that. It does not fall to the State to complete projects for which the liability under the PPP contract falls to DIF. We must respect that contract because to do otherwise would be to undermine the position of the State. DIF has a responsibility to deliver these schools. It has spent a lot of money getting to this point but it needs to complete the projects before receiving payment from the State. We are very actively working, through the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, with the schools and with DIF to try and secure that outcome.