THE Department of Education is having difficulty recovering grant aid from religious orders which decide to sell off secondary school assets, the Committee of Public Accounts was told yesterday.
The Department Secretary, Dr Don Thornhill, admitted that there was no fixed procedure for recovering money owed to the State after a school closed down. He said that school owners were reluctant to repay grant aid, arguing that they should be entitled to keep the proceeds of the sale of their assets.
He was responding to criticism from TDs that religious orders have been allowed to sell, for private development, school property in which the State has invested substantial sums. Mr Tommy Broughan (Lab) said there had been a number of "outrageous" sales from which the State had gained no benefit.
Mr Ball O'Keeffe (FF) said there was an urgent need to establish proper procedures for recouping grant aid as a number of secondary school properties were to be sold in the coming years.
The joint Oireachtas committee was discussing the Value for Money Report on Planning of Second-Level School Accommodation.