Labour plans €4.5bn school building programme

New proposals to involve the National Development Finance Agency in securing an estimated 400 new schools at a cost of about €4.5 billion were launched by the Labour Party yesterday.

The proposals were immediately criticised by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, who said they would slow down school-building projects and waste money.

The proposals involve the creation of 100,000 additional school places, which the Economic and Social Research Institute has predicted will be required over the next decade.

The new schools are to be constructed to a new design commissioned by the Labour Party, which the party said would create "a new generation of child-centred schools".

The party also proposes to phase out the use of existing prefabs, and build in provision for pre-school facilities as well as community use of all new school buildings.

Under the scheme, the National Development Finance Agency would be given powers to compulsorily acquire land to "fast-track the necessary purchases at fair prices".

Labour's spokeswoman on education, Jan O'Sullivan, said the new buildings could be provided for €4.5 billion, the amount of money already budgeted in the National Development Plan 2007 to 2013.

But she said the new design for school buildings was essential, as it would reflect a set of values and an educational philosophy that put child-centred education at the heart of the community.

The party had, she said, commissioned the design "to give expression to our concept of Ireland's schools for the 21st century". The new model school has a large open square at its heart. Part of this will be an auditorium-style forum for meetings and school performances.

In addition, each class would have access to a school garden where an environmental syllabus could be taught.

The party has deliberately excluded the Department of Education from having a role in the provision of the new buildings and said it also wants to take the Office of Public Works (OPW) "out of the picture".

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the decision to shift responsibility from the OPW and the department, which are currently responsible for new schools, was taken in the interests of efficiency.

He said the department's record on school provision was "dismal" and State building projects could get shuffled back and forth between the department and the OPW for years.

Mr Rabbitte said the choice of body to have responsibility for procuring schools had come down to "who would be the most likely to be efficient at it" and he said the agency had a good record in this regard.

The agency is part of the Government's National Treasury Management Agency and was established in 2003 to assist in providing cost-effective finance for priority infrastructure projects. It is staffed by experts largely from the private sector with experience of corporate finance, risk assessment and the delivery of major projects.

In her criticism of the Labour proposals, Ms Hanafin said while the National Treasury Management Agency, parent body of the National Development Finance Agency, had great expertise in managing major financial projects such as the Pensions Reserve Fund, it had no experience in planning for the needs of local populations.

"The Labour Party's proposals to move responsibility for school building works to the National Treasury Management Agency would slow down vital projects. And their plans to duplicate the already excellent standard designs for schools would be a waste of public money," the Minister said.