MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe has announced that 43 major school building projects are to go to tender and construction this year.
In all, the new projects will deliver more than 19,600 places in new schools and provide extensions and refurbishment of existing schools, Mr O’Keeffe said yesterday.
However the Irish National Teachers Organisation has accused him of recycling old news. It says several of the projects had already been announced three years ago by his predecessor.
At primary level there will be places for more than 9,800 pupils in 21 new schools and seven extended and refurbished schools. At post-primary level, 5,600 students will get new permanent school accommodation in eight new schools.
A further 4,275 students in seven post-primary schools will benefit from major extension and refurbishment projects.
Five of the school building projects are being retendered to get the best value for money in the construction sector. In all, some €656 million will be invested in the school building programme this year.
Mr O’Keeffe also announced details of 25 school building projects that will now begin architectural planning.
However the INTO said yesterday that many of the building projects announced as news were originally signalled to be built in 2006.
The union’s general secretary, John Carr, said a ministerial explanation should be provided of why these schools had not been built in the meantime. “Is it any wonder there’s a slowdown in construction when it takes this long to build a school?” asked Mr Carr.
The INTO also accused the Minister of releasing selective information on the school building programme. Mr Carr said contrary to what had been promised, there was no transparency in the school building process. He said 1,250 schools had applied for major building works while only 43 projects were included in yesterday’s announcement.
