Price of fixing defective schools has exceeded original building cost of €160m

Tyrellstown Educate Together, one of 30 schools to undergo structural examinations after concerns were raised regarding schools built by Tyrone-based company Western Building Systems (WBS). Picture Eamonn Farrell

Remedial works on 40 schools with structural and fire safety defects have cost more than the original €160m construction bill.

The cost of remedial work, which was started in 2015 when fire safety defects were detected in a north Dublin school, has ballooned.

In October 2020, the Public Accounts Committee was told the cost had reached €90m, but according to a number of sources, that has now exceeded €160m and the work is not yet completed.

On Monday, the Commercial Court is due to begin hearing an action taken by the Department of Education against the contractor, Tyrone-based Western Building Systems (WBS), over alleged failures in the construction of Ardgillan Community College in north Co Dublin.

The case is the first of 34 separate actions, involving 40 schools, being taken by the department against WBS.

Between 2003 and 2018, WBS was responsible for the construction of 50 schools around the State as part of a rapid build programme designed to meet the growing need for new school places. Five of the 40 schools where defects have been identified are in Cork, while 18 of them were in the Dublin area.

A Department of Education spokesperson refused to confirm whether the remedial costs had exceeded the value of the original contract.

“The department is not in a position to comment on the details of the issues raised in the media query, given that cases are currently before the courts," the spokesperson said. 

"The department continues to liaise with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office on the ongoing legal process.”

WBS also declined to comment on the cost due to the forthcoming hearing.

“WBS is vigorously contesting the actions taken against it and its co-defendants,” a spokesperson said.

WBS has maintained that all of its work was signed off by the department as having been completed to the proper standards over the years.

In 2019, it called for an independent investigation to examine “how schools previously certified for completion as being free from defects by the department, and described less than 12 months ago by the then minister as being built to the highest standards, are now being deemed to require remedial works”.

The case will be the first of its kind to examine the fallout from building practices and regulations during the so-called Celtic Tiger years.

One element expected to feature in the hearing is that some of the schools were built after the introduction of new building regulations designed to do away with the ‘light touch’ regime.

The BCAR regulations came into effect in 2014, but the school building programme continued to 2018.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee was told in October 2020 by department officials that the department had a clerk of works on site “in recent years” to ensure that the building being done was according to design.