Schools to be offered grants to help lower bills [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 10 March 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
by Niall Murray
SCHOOLS are to be offered grants to help reduce their spiralling water and energy bills, including funding for insulation similar to that recently announced for homeowners.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe will announce details soon but said he has not yet been able to secure a definitive sum for the Summer Works Scheme which was cancelled last year.
He said in light of complaints from schools about electricity costs and water charges, he will introduce a scheme emphasising the conservation of energy and water. All schools must pay their local council a e4 water charge for every pupil annually, but they will be charged for actual water usage when metered billing is introduced next year.
"I'll make grants available to schools to enable them cut back on use of energy and water, which will certainly include insulation. It would be ironic if we were making grants available to private homes and not making them available to schools in relation to conservation.
"We want to create a culture of conservation and who better to involve than children, as part of the overall educational process," the minister said.
The grants will be operated separately from the summer scheme, which he said will have funding available this year but the amount will not be decided until he has further information on the public finances.
Around 1,200 primary and second-level schools applied in September 2007 for funding under the programme last summer to carry out non-urgent repair works, and spent more than e1 million on builders' and architects' fees preparing submissions. But Mr O'Keeffe's predecessor Mary Hanafin cancelled the scheme in favour of more urgent large-scale building works in the 2008 budget.
Irish National Teachers' Organisation general secretary John Carr said the failure to announce details of the 2009 scheme was inexcusable.
"It's time the minister stopped stringing schools and the general public along and say once and for all if there is going to be a scheme this summer. If there is, then schools want to know when and how to apply for funding to carry out work on heating systems, electricity supply and crumbling buildings.
"Schools need time to make applications, get approval, seek quotations, engage contractors and make arrangements for work to be carried out," Mr Carr said.
The minister said his officials have started examining 2008 applications in the last few weeks and he believes it is not too late yet to invite fresh submissions. The programme was worth an average of e73m a year since being introduced in 2004, and helped carry out more than 3,000 projects.
