1,400 school plans await funding

THE GOVERNMENT has been challenged to prioritise spending on education after data obtained by the Opposition revealed some 1,400 school building projects are awaiting funding.

The figures received from the Department of Education show 66 per cent of the 1,398 schools listed are in critical need of repair or urgent attention. Fine Gael spokesman on education Brian Hayes described the news as "worrying".

"This information shows that 25 per cent of primary and post-primary schools in the country now have a building application before the department," Mr Hayes said.

The data, which focuses on the School Building Programme, showed 1,033 school projects were at the preplanning stage and 365 had reached planning level.

Some 225 of the schools in need of work were in Co Dublin, 172 in Co Cork and 103 in Co Galway, the figures obtained under Freedom of Information show.

The 26-county list does not include schools that have builders ready to proceed to construction or those that have passed the tender stage but are yet to receive the green light, Mr Hayes said.

The department, in a statement last night, said the Government had invested an "unprecedented" level of capital, some €600 million, in school buildings this year.

It said last year 60 large-scale school building projects were completed, with 16 new schools and 44 extension or refurbishment projects. "The primary and post-primary capital allocation for 2008 is much higher than the 2007 allocation.

"The combined output of traditional-build schools and extension and refurbishment projects together with the schools fast-tracked for delivery in September 2008 will result in the practical completion of far more large-scale projects than the level of output experienced in 2007."

Mr Hayes said the department could not tell him the cost of the entire programme or set out the costs incurred by the schools individually in bringing their applications forward.

Schools do not know where they stand on the list and because another announcement on the programme is not due until September, building will only begin next year, he said.