Thursday, March 18, 2010 Previous editions
Friday, October 09, 2009
EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe was unable to guarantee yesterday that millions of building money allocated for school buildings would be used for other capital projects if it is not spent by the end of the year.
The revelation that €112 million – or one-fifth – of the €568m the Department of Education was due to have been spent on capital projects so far this year has not yet been spent drew anger from teachers and school managers yesterday.
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said the under-spend puts 4,000 jobs at risk and could cost the Exchequer €200m.
The projected spend to the end of September at primary level was €280.9m, but just €196.6m (or 70%) was spent. At second-level, there has been a €7.8m (5.9%) under-spend on the €132m due to have been spent up to the end of last month, while third-level capital spending was 12% (€16m) below the €133m target.
The Department of Education said the main cause of the total under-spend relates to new schools and extensions at primary and second level. It said some factors included savings of €14m on prefab rentals, and tenders coming in 20% to 30% less than a year ago, higher than anticipated savings of 15% to 20%.
Mr O’Keeffe is allowed to carry over 10% of his capital allocation to spend next year, which would be worth around €85m. But his spokesman could not say that any unspent money at the end of the year would be used to advance some of the 1,300 building projects awaiting progress.
"The minister is considering all options regarding any capital under-spend, including the option to carry forward next year some deferred expenditure on major capital projects," he said.
"The overall position is being kept under close review.
"There is a significant amount of capital expenditure planned for the remainder of the year," he said.
Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) incoming general secretary, Sheila Nunan, said it beggars belief that 20% of funds remain unspent when almost one-in-three primary schools need major building works.
"This reverses any progress made in securing funding for the school building fund in the budgetary process" she said.
CIF director Tom Parlon said every €100m cut from the spending programme results in 1,000 job losses and costs the Exchequer €51m in social welfare payments and reduced taxes and spending but with just €455m of the Department of Education’s €841m capital budget spent so far, at least 4,000 jobs are impacted and it will actually cost the State of the order of €200m not to build the schools.
© Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 73385.
