AQW 20964/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 21/01/2025
Answered On Date: 14/02/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education why there were no bids for Financial Transactions Capital funding in the January Monitoring Round.

Answer:

Financial Transaction Capital (FTC) funding can only be deployed by the public sector as a loan to, or equity investment in a private sector entity. The private sector entity will then use the funding to invest in related infrastructure. As schools funded via the Education Authority are classified to the central government sector, they are not eligible to receive FTC.

In short, FTC does not represent a viable alternative to the funding of my Department’s Schools Capital programmes as compared to conventional Capital DEL funding.