Probe into €75m spent on unfilled school places

Oireachtas officials are to inquire into what happened to €75m spent by a state-funded charity to support thousands of school places which were never filled. 

Comptroller and Auditor General Séamus McCarthy said yesterday that 15,000 excess school places were eventually reported in 2011, for funds spent over four years up to 2010.

The children had been registered for the places but never turned up, the Public Accounts Committee heard.