Limbo of PPP schools casts doubt on model

ONLY 18 months ago, the construction firm was worth £2bn (€2.29bn). Last week, Carillion was forced to announce that so dire was the state of its finances it would be liquidated, not put into administration. The decision has sparked one of the largest financial collapses in recent British corporate history.

The impact put the jobs of tens of thousands of workers in jeopardy, resulted in deserted building sites across Britain, and threatened its operations in Canada and the Middle East.

And six schools in this country are also caught in the fallout of the British collapse. These schools, being built under public-private partnerships (PPP), are now in limbo around when they can move into their new buildings.

Two of the schools, Loreto, Co Wexford, and Coláiste Raithín Bray, Co Wicklow, were due to end years of waiting yesterday and move into their state-of-the-art premises. However, the hand-over dates are now up in the air. The Dutch partner in the consortium involved in building the schools where work has stopped said a delay in finishing the projects was “inevitable”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar yesterday pledged that there would be a solution reached, but said: “It is going to take a couple of weeks to sort this out.”

However, the Departments of Education and Finance have done little to assure the management, pupils and parents of the schools concerned that they have a handle on the situation – let alone the taxpayer.

The collapse will also raise questions about the PPP model, where the State is turning to the private sector to build and run facilities that would traditionally be entirely in the hands of the public or voluntary bodies.