A €51.3 million contract to built the new National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, was signed yesterday by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey.
Under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project, the first of its kind in third-level education, the college will be designed, built, financed and operated for 25 years by a private company, FocusEducation Ltd.
Work will start early next month and is due to be completed by October 2004.
Catering for 750 full-time students, the facility aims to service both the Cork Institute of Technology and the non-military needs of the Irish Naval Service.
It also hopes to be a major attraction for international trainees, thereby enhancing Ireland's reputation as a centre for maritime training.
Speaking on board the LE Eithne at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, Mr Dempsey said the announcement confirmed his Department's position as "the leading force in the delivery of quality infrastructural projects" under the Government's pilot PPP programme.
He also acknowledged the work undertaken by his Department's specialist advisers, including Deloitte and Touche, A.& L.Goodbody, Interserve and Gleeds Rooney.
As well as containing normal lecture rooms, the college will have specialist survival units, seamanship and shipwrights' workshops, fire fighting/damage control, jetty and lifeboat facilities and an engine room for training.
It will also provide specialised simulation equipment in areas such as navigation, bridge training, communications, machinery operations and vessel traffic systems.
FocusEducation, an affiliate of the international management company Bovis Lend Lease, was selected for the project from a shortlist of three consortia.
