A group established to ensure an adequate supply of teachers in primary and post-primary schools meets today for the first time.

TDs are demanding that a detailed cost review of the Limerick Tunnel transport development is immediately published after officials admit the full cost may exceed €200m.

Senior civil servants have been accused of blocking transparency on public spending after it emerged that 11 cost reviews of multi-million-euro public-private projects are still to be published months after the investigations finished.

Education Minister Richard Bruton is preparing to enter a deal with the Christian Brothers that will only reduce what the order owes towards abuse costs if school playing fields are sold.

Education Minister Richard Bruton’s officials will meet the Christian Brothers order next week to discuss a disputed land deal to help meet their liability for child abuse redress costs.

Cork Institute of Technology is being asked for a full explanation of how its ex-president Brendan Murphy personally signed off on more than half the €13,000 costs of two functions to mark his own retirement.

Six properties promised to the State by the Catholic Church in 2002 still remain outside full public ownership 15 years later, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The Department of Education will be grilled by TDs next month on whether it really expects religious orders to pay everything owed under a 2002 deal on the costs of redress for institutional abuse.

A review is being undertaken by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) into arrangements relating to spin-off research companies based there.

The Department of Education tried to downplay the significance of another dramatic fall in the international rankings of Ireland’s top universities.

A 700-bed student accommodation project on the country’s newest third-level campus depends on EU approval for a funding system, due to question marks over its effect on government debt.

Fresh efforts are being made to provide educational choice for more families following the Programme for Government plan for 400 non-religious schools.

More than €45,000 of public money is being spent just to get two third-level colleges in the south-east talking to each other about the possibility of resuming merger talks.

High-speed internet, training for teachers and accessible technical support will be key features of a government plan to make technology more a part of daily classroom activity.

The student grants system that caused “chaos” when set up four years ago has lost so much money it would risk being closed down if it was a private company, the chair of a Dáil group has claimed.

UCC’s president said that he does not know what staff payments the Department of Education believes breach pay rules.

The board of the former Cork County VEC received nearly six times more in payments and expenses than its city counterparts in the five years prior to the amalgamation of the two organisations, correspondence to the Public Account Committee has revealed.

The Department of Education has been told to improve accountability and transparency in the management of the €360m National Training Fund.

Co Cork VEC lobbied the minister for education for new laws to impeach committee members for disloyalty after it took issue with the actions of a whistleblower.

The Department of Education has said it can find no evidence that Wexford VEC got permission before signing a lease for a new headquarters which has cost taxpayers €420,000.

Colleges and universities may face stricter controls on which subjects teachers will be trained for, due to shortages being faced by schools.

A small number of Catholic schools may transfer to new patrons later this year but the Department of Education expects others to follow suit in greater numbers over the next few years.

The Government will only talk to the union of 16,000 teachers disrupting 500 second-level schools if they are willing to sign up to the Haddington Road deal, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s top civil servant said yesterday.

A committee member credited with exposing financial irregularities in Cork County VEC has asked the permanent head of the Department of Education to appoint an inspector to further investigate the education body.

County Cork VEC spent almost €50,000 responding to reports that it had lost more than €100,000 due to mismanagement at a Youthreach centre.

The collapse of building firms has delayed 20 major school and college projects over the past three years.

Technology for the failed online system to process college grants has cost the Department of Education almost €800,000.

Institutes of technology believe efforts to ease pressures of the college points race should not be too focused on Leaving Certificate maths performance.

Student grant applicants will be given clearer information this year on the ability to report reduced incomes, after hundreds had to make appeals that could have been avoided.

The head of the Department of Education does not know if Co Cork Vocational Education Committee intentionally misled it over leases it entered into without the department’s prior permission.

Primary school pupils will have their progress tracked in the education system by a long-awaited database that could help the Government develop better education and social policies.

The President, Michael D Higgins, has urged young people not to get involved in cyberbullying or ganging up on vulnerable classmates.

A college has admitted it chartered two more previously secret private jet trips for an expert assessing its bid to become a university.

The Department of Education has revealed it is to tackle waste and mismanagement in the VEC sector by unveiling a new system of scrutiny.

The patrons competing to take control of Catholic schools where parents want more choice for their children are being warned not to engage in ‘media battles’ for local support.

New powers to sanction bad teachers and stop some from working again are to come into effect under plans by Ruairi Quinn, the education minister.

The training of teachers in 22 different colleges is wasteful in a country this size, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said.

An official political watchdog has criticised the lack of transparency concerning the rules on how Government ministers can claim expenses when using their private vehicles.

DEVELOPMENT lands taken over by NAMA could be used for dozens of schools in areas where sites have been difficult to acquire.

DLS Macroom 0-12 Dingle CBS 1-8