Some 450 schools get vital €31m funding

ALMOST 450 schools have been given €31 million for urgent structural and repair work during the summer holidays.

Some 1,200 schools applied for funding after Education Minister Noel Dempsey announced the new Summer Works Scheme in December. Of those, 292 primary and 150 second level schools were successful.

Included in the list is Gortahork National School in Donegal, where parents removed pupils from classes last December after rats had been seen in the yard. The school is to receive money for work to comply with fire officer’s requirements. More than 350 schools will get money to carry out urgent structural, mechanical, gas or electrical works. The rest are to get funding for projects required to comply with fire officer and insurers’ requirements, or to adapt facilities for pupils or staff with special needs.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation welcomed the funding but reminded the minister that hundreds more school buildings need urgent work.

“The Government should use the current surplus in the exchequer to provide more funding for school buildings using a similar scheme,” INTO general secretary John Carr said.

Teachers Union of Ireland president Derek Dunne said schools should not have to compete against each other to secure funding for vital projects. More than one-fifth of the schools are in Dublin, 43 in Cork, with only three in Longford and two in Leitrim to benefit.