On 17 July 2012, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr. Brendan Howlin T.D., announced the Government's plans for an additional €2.25 billion investment in job-rich public infrastructure projects in Ireland. Included in the package is €1.4bn of non exchequer funded PPP projects.

The projects are aimed at delivering a much needed domestic economic stimulus through the creation of up to 13,000 new jobs. Certain of the projects had reached various stages of development already but had been put on hold largely as a result of perceived difficulties in obtaining commercial funding.

The recent development of funding structures on the Schools Bundle 3 PPP Project involving the EIB and the Irish National Pension Reserve Fund is seen as a breakthrough and which will be used as the basis for funding the new PPP Programme. Arthur Cox is advising the National Development Finance Agency, the contracting authority, on this Project.

The new PPP Programme is focused on the areas of education; health; transport; and justice.

Below is a brief summary of the projects proposed:

Education

€280 million will be invested in:

  • two new school PPP bundles containing a total of 12 additional or replacement schools in Clare, Kildare, Cork, Louth and Tipperary. The first bundle will consist of one primary school and five post primary schools, estimated at €50 million capex. The second bundle is currently being finalised and is estimated to be worth €50 million capex; and
  • €180 million is being invested in the Dublin Institute of Technology's Grangegorman Educational Facility. The plan is to consolidate DIT's 39 sites across Dublin into a single educational facility. There will be two PPP projects one for each of the two stages of the Masterplan for the GrangeGorman Campus.

Procurement of the schools PPPs will commence in 2013 on a rolling basis, with construction being completed during 2017 and 2018. It is expected that enabling works will commence at Grangegorman during 2013, with construction of the PPP element of the facility beginning in late 2015 or early 2016.

Health

€115 million will be invested in:

  • the first phase of the healthcare package, which will consist of two bundles of primary care centres comprising of up to 10 centres each in locations all over the State; and
  • the second phase of the package aims for a total of 36 new primary health-care centres to be distributed across Ireland.

Procurement will commence by end 2012 with construction starting in 2014.

Transport

€850 million will be invested in upgrading the national motorway and primary route network:

  • the N17/N18 Gort to Tuam project (currently at preferred bidder stage);
  • the N11 Arklow/Rathnew project (currently already at preferred bidder stage);
  • the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy project will involve upgrading 26 kilometres of road to motorway and will include a bypass of Enniscorthy (this project reached shortlisting stage previously but is expected to be re-tendered);
  • the N25 New Ross Bypass will provide approximately 13.6 kilometres of new road from Glenmore at the eastern border of Kilkenny and crossing over the River Barrow via a new bridge into Wexford; and
  • a further project marked as a priority PPP project is the Galway City Bypass – a 12 kilometre orbital route for Galway city linking with the M6 major inter-urban route to Dublin. This project remains on hold and will be progressed subject to the outcome of current legal proceedings;

Construction of the N11 Arklow/Rathnew is expected to commence before the end of 2012, N17/N18 Gort to Tuam is expected to commence in 2013, and the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy and the N25 New Ross bypass by end 2014.

Justice

€190 million will be invested in:

  • the State Pathology Laboratory;
  • new Garda divisional headquarters;
  • new courthouses in Drogheda, Letterkenny, Limerick and Wexford; and
  • refurbishment and extension works to existing courthouses in Cork, Mullingar and Waterford.

Construction of these projects is expected to commence in 2013 and will continue during 2014 and 2015.

This article contains a general summary of developments and is not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should be obtained where appropriate.