THE NUMBER of school building projects has “slowed to a trickle” with only 20 new schools completed last year, Fine Gael claims. This compares to 48 in 2008.
According to education spokesman Brian Hayes, the Government has also acknowledged that the number of newly built classrooms fell from 1,000 in 2008 to just over 600 last year.
“This comes on the back of news that, last year, the Department of Education did not spend millions allocated for school buildings. In fact the Minister had to hand back funds to the Department of Finance because he couldn’t spend what he was given,” Mr Hayes said.
Fine Gael said that, although a third of all schools have applied for projects under the school building programme, the tendering system introduced in 2008 has led to mounting bureaucracy and delays.
