Summer building scheme a discarded success story

THE school building programme has been the subject of political nightmares for education ministers for more than a generation.

But the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) has been one of the few success stories of the past decade when it comes to fast and efficient progress in upgrading the facilities of Ireland’s 4,000 primary and second-level schools.

Announced on December 10, 2003, by the minister of the day Noel Dempsey, the scheme was designed to give schools power to manage building projects of a non-emergency nature.