Minister Brendan Howlin has welcomed the announcement by his colleague Minister Ruairi Quinn TD that the latest Bundle of PPP schools has been signed off on by all partners and that work will begin on sites around the country on Monday.

This will create and sustain important jobs in the construction sector.

Minister Howlin said: "I am very pleased that we have achieved sign off on the latest bundles of schools to be delivered using the Public Private Partnership model. This is the fourth bundle of schools to be delivered as a PPP and will provide some 5,700 places for pupils in 8 new schools throughout the country. It has taken some time to get agreement with all the partners on this projects and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all those involved including the NDFA, the Department of Education and our funding partners the EIB and Bank of Ireland and the PPP Consortium Bam Ireland.

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"I particularly welcome the fact that Bam have aligned with a large Dutch Pension Fund to provide investment into this PPP. This is the first such agreement with Pension Funds in the European PPP market and I am delighted that it is not only the first Irish PPP to attract Pension fund investment but it is also the first in Europe. I hope that this innovative partnership approach will be adopted for future PPPs."

(CD/IT)