The Irish Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe has announced details of seven new schools to be built using Public-Private Partnerships.

The schools will be built in six different counties, including Donegal, Leitrim, Galway, Wexford, Waterford and Westmeath, and are expected to provide new school places for over 4,800 pupils.

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"I want to congratulate each school on their selection and I hope that construction work can begin as quickly as possible once all necessary steps have been taken in the PPP process. I've asked officials from my department's PPP unit to immediately begin the pre-procurement process for the third bundle."

The minister said he hoped the schools would be up and running by late 2012.

Under the PPP programme private companies commit to not just design and build the school buildings, but also to run and maintain them for the first 20 or so years.

Six of the new projects are second-level schools while one is a primary school.

(DW)