Department to spend €331m left in budget on capital works

THE Department of Education has slammed the brakes on school building projects in the last eight weeks but insists it will spend its remaining €331 million on capital projects by the end of the year.

Just €381m of its €712m capital allocation for 2010 was spent by the end of October, or €104m less than the €484m due to have been spent in the first 10 months.

But a further analysis of figures seen by the Irish Examiner show €48m, or 40%, of the €119.5m that was supposed to have been spent on primary and second-level schools since the end of August is still in the department’s accounts.