Primary school builds €50m behind target

AS hundreds of schools await funding to move out of dilapidated and unsuitable buildings, it has emerged spending on primary schools alone is almost €50 million behind target.

The principal of a Cork school waiting a decade for progress on its application expressed frustration at hearing this week how almost half of the Department of Education’s 2010 budget of €712m was unspent by the end of October.

The Irish Examiner has learned spending on primary school building projects is €49m behind target for the first 10 months of the year. The department was to have spent €189m on new primary schools, extensions and major refurbishments by the end of October but only €140m has been spent.

While schools’ capital spending is €48m behind target so far this year, it had been proceeding on course as recently as the end of August.

More than 1,350 schools have applications for major works, with around 160 in various planning stages and 26 major projects expected to be completed this year.

Rahan National School near Mallow, Co Cork, applied to the building unit in the Department of Education a decade ago but principal Jerry Lynch says the department has not yet sent an official to see their conditions. “It’s very frustrating to hear all the money that is available for school building works isn’t even being spent. Our four prefabs were replaced in 2008 because they were rat-infested but they’re costing around €46,000 a year and the parish and the school bought a site behind us for €150,000 in 2005,” he said.

“It’s lying idle since then so we got architects to design and cost an extension to our own school earlier this year. We sent in a proposal, which would cost around €800,000 instead of €1m to build a new school, but all we’ve had from the department is a letter to say they’ve received it,” he said.

Mr Lynch teaches 20 fifth and sixth class pupils in the only classroom in the 1948 school building, but is worried about next year when he will have around 30 pupils crammed into the same space.

Michael O’Donnell, principal of Glenville National School, also in north Cork, is glad their 11-year -old building application has just cleared the department’s first planning stage. But although a design team has been appointed, he is fearful about the consequences of the slowdown in funding.

“We’ve been waiting for a long time for this to happen and now that we’re finally here, it would be devastating for the school to think there could be any further delay,” he said.

The 146-pupil school was built in 1955 and is damp and overcrowded but, even if everything runs smoothly, it will be at least two years before they could move to the building planned on the school pitch.

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation general secretary Sheila Nunan said a recent ESRI report confirmed the importance of school design for pupils’ achievement and it beggars belief that almost half the annual building fund remains unspent.

Department officials told the Oireachtas Education Committee six weeks ago it expected work to begin by the end of the year on 20 out of 47 large builds that were at tender stage.

The department is €32m behind target on its €95.5m third level capital budget this year, while €1.25m more than the €146.75m allocation for second level schools has been spent.