Bank of Ireland finances multi-million Schools Project with the European Investment Bank

Bank of Ireland today, (Monday 12 November 2012) announced that it has funded the development of an eight-school Public Private Partnership (PPP) project for which contracts were recently signed. Construction will start immediately and all schools are expected to be completed by 2014.

Bank of Ireland and the European Investment Bank (EIB) provided the debt funding totalling over €100 million for eight schools throughout the country. The construction of the seven secondary schools and one primary school will result in around 1,000 construction jobs and, when complete, will create c.5, 700 new school places. The schools are in counties Wexford, Leitrim, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Donegal and Westmeath.  The schools will be constructed by BAM Building Ltd based in Kill, Co Kildare.

Donal Murphy, Director, Project Finance, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking said:  “The provision of the debt funding for the project, alongside the EIB, highlights our continued commitment to the domestic PPP market. It brings our funding commitments to the Irish infrastructure market, in recent years, to over €400m. Our team here in Bank of Ireland are now recognised as the leading project finance team in the Irish market and we look forward to working with BAM PPP, the National Roads Authority and EIB to deliver debt funding for the N11/N7 (Newlands Cross) PPP in the near future”

“This transaction is a very important milestone for the Irish infrastructure market, in that it demonstrates that privately financed projects can be delivered, even against the backdrop of the EU/IMF/ECB programme and constrained capital spending. We are confident that Schools Bundle 3 will pave the way for further pipeline projects in the Schools and Roads sectors and we also look forward to seeing the launch of the Primary Care Centres PPP Programme”.

Commenting Tom Hayes, Chief Executive, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking said:  “This transaction highlights Bank of Ireland’s commitment to supporting local communities throughout the country. It will create over 1,000 much needed jobs during construction and on completion will provide first class educational facilities for over 5,700 pupils and serve generations to come. As the leading financier of infrastructure projects in the Irish Market we look forward to continuing to play a key role in bringing critically important infrastructure projects like Schools Bundle 3 to completion”.

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