Doubts over school building plan

DOUBTS have been raised about the four-year time scale in which Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe expects to have completed the latest group of schools built under a public private partnership (PPP) deal.

He announced yesterday that six second-level schools and one primary school each in Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford are to be included in the third bundle of PPP schools to be funded by his department, catering for up to 4,800 students when they open.

But Labour party education spokesperson Ruairi Quinn questioned his target for delivery of the latest seven schools by late 2012, which Mr O’Keeffe said was subject to completion of the planning process.