Architects reject O’Keeffe’s claims of overcharging
The minister told the Irish Examiner earlier this month he believes schools should no longer be paying 13.5% of the cost of works in architects’ fees, as he seeks greater value for money from his school building programme.
But the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has written to Mr O’Keeffe telling him this is incorrect and out of date with current practice.
“When this figure was operable it covered the full design team fees comprising an architect, engineers, fire consultants and a quantity surveyor, but no design team has been offered an all-in fee of 13.5% for the last five to seven years,” said RIAI president Seán Ó Laoire. He also rejected as impractical a proposal by Mr O’Keeffe that schools bypass the services of an architect in favour of a civil engineer or surveyor to cut building costs.
Meanwhile, the board of the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education has described its planned closure as a signal of Government disengagement from its commitments to the sector and to tackling educational disadvantage.
“It will mean a significant loss of expertise and capacity to this important area of policy development and implementation,” a statement said. The centre opened six years ago, but will wind up its work in the coming weeks, although it is understood that two of its seven staff may be transferred to the Department of Education to progress quality provision of early childhood education.
The Irish Preschool Play Association called on the Government to reverse its shocking decision and said the centre has contributed enormously to development of quality in pre-school services, including daycare, play groups and child minding.
“This cutback may provide a minute saving in the short term, but will be far outweighed by the major loss of quality for our children,” said association chief executive Irene Gunning.
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