Troubled €850k school email system sparks political spat

FINE GAEL’S education spokesman Brian Hayes has challenged Batt O’Keeffe to a public debate after the Education Minister dismissed his combative approach as impulsive and lacking in credibility.

Yesterday, Mr Hayes questioned the Department of Education’s faith in a school email system that had cost €842,960 but was only available in 21 locations — at an individual cost of €361 per user.

The project was part of the troubled schools broadband scheme and is available to 697 staff and 1,580 pupils, as well as administrative workers.

Mr Hayes said the scheme should either be rolled out across the country or scrapped, but there was no money provided to expand it.

A reply from the minister said it was a pilot project and Mr Hayes’ attack was “vacuous and misleading”.

He also criticised the amount of press statements which the Fine Gael spokesman had released attacking his department on various issues.

“Deputy Hayes is issuing so many micro-level press releases that trying to digest them is a bit like drinking water from a fire hose.

“Perhaps in the new year, Deputy Hayes will resolve to focus more of his energy on constructive policy-making, lest the huge volume of press releases he issues almost daily frames him as the impulsive boy who cried wolf,” the minister said.

Mr Hayes said the question of investing in a student email system, which had yet to be made available beyond the pilot stage, was symptomatic of wider ineptitude in the department’s handling of computer technology.

“I think the minister should stop hiding behind his spokesmen and cronies and I challenge him to a public debate, head to head, on the issue of technology in education.

“I was highlighting the fact that Minister O’Keeffe’s department has spent almost €900,000 on a system that is effectively available for free elsewhere,” Mr Hayes said.

He said there was a wider issue of effective investment in technology and how the €252 million commitment made in the National Development Plan would be spent.

“This is not about me, this is about technology and the role it should be playing in Irish education.

“This €252m is money promised by the previous minister (Mary Hanafin) more than 17 times and we need to know will Mr O’Keeffe renege on this,” said Mr Hayes.

Mr O’Keeffe said the email system was beneficial and would continue to be assessed.

“If Deputy Hayes believes that a more efficient mechanism to transmit information to schools is a waste of money, then his judgment is more questionable than I thought,” he said.