Forty-three major school building projects are to go to tender and construction this year as part of the Government’s €656 million school building programme.

The scheme “represents a very significant amount of new business for the construction industry”, the Minister for Education and Science Batt O’Keeffe said as he made his annoucment.

They include 30 brand new school buildings, as well as a number of large extensions and refurbishment projects in existing schools.

The building projects involve schools in 17 counties, at both primary and second level.

However, announcing the move, Minister O’Keefe said five of these school building projects are being re-tendered under the new form of contracts for public capital projects to get the best value for money in the construction sector.

“The remaining 38 projects will go to tender and construction as soon as possible and it’s expected that building work will begin on the majority of these projects this year,” he said.

He pointed out that, this year, a record €656 million will be invested in the school building programme.

“The 43 major projects I’m announcing today to proceed to tender and construction, along with the 35 projects I’ve announced over the past four months, represent a very significant amount of new business for the construction industry at a time of severe contraction in the sector.

“The more competitive environment in the construction sector will allow me to maximise the return I get for the capital resources invested in the school building programme.

“Our increased spend this year demonstrates the Government’s desire to continue investing in the productive capacity of the economy, to create construction jobs and to provide schoolchildren and teachers with the best educational environment in which to learn and work,” said Minister O’Keeffe.

He also announced details of 25 high-priority major school building projects that are now to start architectural planning.

The majority of these projects were previously approved in principle to enter architectural planning.

“These projects have been selected to start architectural planning now because they’ll provide a significant number of extra school places in areas where demographic demand is great.

“Later in the year, I intend to announce further projects to begin architectural planning and I’ll shortly reveal full details of this year’s Summer Works Scheme and a new plan to improve energy efficiency in schools,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.

An Bord Pleanala today granted planning permission to BMG to construct a 250m Euro co-located hospital at Cork University Hospital in a joint initiative with its US partner.

The new facility will represent an investment of almost 2452m Euro by BMG. When fully operational the new hospital will directly employ over 511 staff. With additional indirect employment of approximately 787 people, the new hospital is expected to make a significant positive contribution to the local economy.

The hospital will be operational within 26 months of construction commencing.

The hi-tech, state-of-the-art hospital will comprise 175 single rooms with 8 Critical Care beds, 6 operating theatres, ambulatory surgery and full diagnostics incorporating some 25.8m Euro worth of new generation equipment. The gross floor area will encompass approximately 32,893 sq metres. The hospital will mirror the case-mix of the public hospital, in that all specialities catered for in the public hospital will also be catered for in the co-located hospital – both medical and surgical, with the exception of national specialities. There will be a joint governance structure to manage shared issues.