Five new schools are to be developed in Ireland.

Education Minister Richard Bruton TD gave the go-head for building work to start on four new post-primary schools and one new primary school in respect of Bundle 5 of the Government's Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme.

The contract, which also includes designing, building, and financing the projects, has been entered into with the Inspiredspaces consortium.

The new school building projects are:

• Coláiste Raithín, Bray, Co. Wicklow

• St. Philomena’s Primary School, Bray, Co. Wicklow

• Tyndall College, Carlow

• Eureka Secondary School, Kells, Co. Meath

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• Loreto College, Wexford

The programme provides for the continuing operation and maintenance of these school projects over a 25 year period after the schools become operational.

The schools and sports pitches will be built by Inspiredspaces on greenfield sites and funded by two international investors, BTMU and Haleba.

Minister Bruton said: "You can't achieve a prosperous economy without a fair society, and you can't support a compassionate society without a strong economy. Investment in education is a prime way to grow our society and economy together. Investing in educating improves human capital, ensuring that all our people have opportunities to achieve their potential, as well as generating wider benefits for our economy. Today I am delighted to be able to announce the awarding of the contract for this key infrastructural project which will provide for over 4,500 school places. Quite apart from the construction of these new school buildings, Inspiredspaces will provide for the day-to-day caretaking, maintenance and cleaning of the school leaving the management and staff of the school with more time to concentrate on their core educational activities."

(CD/MH)