Planning delays hit school projects

A GROWING number of objections against planning for new school buildings or extensions are holding up progress on Government investment, Education Minister Mary Hanafin has warned.

A number of Department of Education-funded school projects are being considered by An Bord Pleanála in Kilkenny, Galway and Westmeath among others because planning permission has been appealed by locals.

These factors are being considered by officials in plans to spend €5 billion on primary and second level building and modernisation projects in the new National Development Plan. The aim of the plans is to provide places for 100,000 extra primary pupils, at a cost of €2.2bn, as population trends take effect.