Last year the Comptroller and Auditor General criticised unauthorised spending by Longford VEC of almost £500,000 on two sports halls and a playing pitch. One of the halls remained unused by the public because of unbuilt toilets, showers and changing rooms, and a solar heating system also turned out to be defective.

The Department of Education has also come in for criticism for its inadequate financial controls on VEC spending, which led to this and other wasteful investments.

That half a million pounds - a tiny sum by Celtic Tiger standards - could at one go provide proper inside toilets for the 35 schools where children still have to walk up to 40 yards to cold and insanitary outside toilets.

"What an embarrassing anachronism that we should still have such a situation in the fastest growing economy in the OECD," says Senator Joe O'Toole.