Schools to foot bills after building scheme is scrapped

SCHOOLS are facing bills of up to €4,000 each for reports to support applications for a building scheme that the Government scrapped last week.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin’s department invited schools last June to apply for funding under the summer works scheme by the end of September. The procedure requires schools to submit a report from an architect, builder, tradesperson or another consultant with the application, but any fees were to have been repaid to successful applicants.

But the minister’s announcement that the scheme would not be going ahead next summer means that more than 1,000 primary and second-level schools could now have to write-off the expense of these reports. It is estimated that some schools paid up to €4,000 for the services of experts on larger projects, such as electrical and roofing repairs, for which they had hoped to received funding.