Funds go unspent as just a third of schools being built
Friday November 06 2009
Fewer than one in three new schools on the official building programme are under construction.
A backlog in the Department of Education's building programme is going to leave a large chunk of the budget unspent as 1,200 schools await approval for major works.
Frank Wyse, assistant secretary at the department, said that €368m of the €614m school building budget had been spent to the end of October -- €112m lower than anticipated at this stage.
More will be spent before the end of the year. However, it is expected there will still be a significant spending shortfall.
0f the 78 projects that were due to commence this year, only seven are nearing completion, while only a further 15 are under construction, according to the department's latest figures.
The 78 projects were due to cater for 16,250 pupils at primary level and a further 14,075 at post primary.
Of the projects where construction has not started, 31 are at tender stage, while in 14 cases draft tender documents are being examined by the department, and tender documents have yet to be received on the remaining 11.
A senior department official yesterday blamed teething problems with a new contract process for most of the delays.
Meanwhile, a 30pc drop in tender prices has also contributed to a budgetary underspend.
Mr Wyse said the 2009 projects were the first batch to be tendered under a new form of Public Works Contract, which is now used throughout the public sector.
It led to teething problems in the construction industry, while the department organised workshops to explain the process to schools.
Mr Wyse told the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science that a bedding-down period had ensued while the industry developed expertise and familiarity with the new requirements.
He said as the school programme involved a large number of relatively small projects, the delays had a cumulative effect on expenditure, but he said they anticipated that the time taken to prepare tender and associated documentation would reduce in coming months.
Budget
The department does not have to spend the entire budget in 2009 -- up to 10pc can he held over until next year. And Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has also signalled that some will be used to fund a schools technology programme.
Sheila Nunan, the incoming secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, said primary schools would be angered and dismayed by news that millions of euro remained unspent in the building fund.
"With almost one in three primary schools requiring major building works, it beggars belief that 20pc of the fund remains unspent," she said.
"It effectively reverses any progress made in securing funding for the school building fund in the budgetary process.
"A victory has been turned into a defeat."
- Katherine Donnelly
Irish Independent
