Department paid €2.5m more than initially budgeted for site of temporary school

In February 2021, the department agreed to purchase the site of the temporary Educate Together school on the Mill Rd, near Mornington. 

The Department of Education paid nearly €2.5m more than it had initially budgeted for the site of a temporary school in east Meath after a report suggesting it was due to pull out of the deal caused uproar locally.

Some €1.3m of the overall €3.2m expenditure went on the construction of local transport infrastructure which the seller of the land had been legally obliged to complete at its own expense, but failed to do so.