THE Department of Education has wasted €450,000 on a school prefab bought six years ago -- but which was then abandoned to vandals.

The state of the art six-classroom unit, purchased in 2003, has been reduced to rack and ruin and written off by the department after less than three years' use .

The department has blamed a dispute with a developer and the cost of security or storage for the neglect of the pre-fab in Swords, Co Dublin.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) criticised it as "a waste of taxpayers' money".

The prefabricated building has been rendered completely unusable, most recently suffering fire damage, and has become a haunt for drinking parties.

Destroyed

As a result, the Department of Education last year forked out another €230,000 each to two primary schools -- one the original tenant in the destroyed pre-fab -- to allow them buy more temporary accommodation at their new temporary home just a couple hundred yards away on the same stretch of land.

The prefab was one of two six-classroom units with ancillary rooms, costing €450,000 each, which were bought to accommodate Swords Educate Together and Gaelscoil Brian Boroimhe at a joint site at Applewood, Swords, in 2003.

The rapidly expanding primary schools were awaiting permanent accommodation to be built on the same site, which was owned by the property development company Gannon Homes.

Both schools vacated their prefab when, according to the Department of Education, "in order to progress the developer's plans for that site, the developer offered a temporary adjacent site including temporary accommodation to accommodate the two schools from Sept 2006".

Needs

One of the six-classroom units was relocated to Donabate/Portrane Educate Together school for September 2007 to meet its increasing needs.

The other was due to be moved to the schools' new temporary site just a few hundred yards away in order to meet future needs of both Swords schools.

However, it wasn't moved and by early 2008 had become the target of vandals.

The department added: "Given the exposed nature of the site, it proved very difficult to secure the unit. Providing a security service or storing the units elsewhere were not considered to be cost-effective options."

INTO general secretary John Carr said: "This money was spent on the prefabricated building which was in use for less than three years.

"Instead of this accommodation being re-used when the school using it was moved, it was left to go to rack and ruin until it was completely vandalised.

"This contrasts sharply with the cutbacks being imposed on primary schools for essential funding and staffing."

- Katherine Donnelly

DAY-TO-DAY discipline in schools is in danger of breaking down because of a government clamp on filling middle-management positions.

This was the grim warning yesterday from a schools' leader, who said principals and managers had a right to be angry over the education cuts.

In his presidential address to the Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools, Noel Merrick said the recent moratorium on filling middle-management promotion posts came as a shock.

"As more posts remain unfilled, one can predict the chaos that will ensue. Who will take over as year heads? Who will manage the examinations? Who will help with the timetable or the information technology?" he asked.

Appalling

"The spectre for principals and deputy principals is simply appalling. If the schools are to continue to function, the work will still have to be done. This is not about promotion per se but about keeping schools operating," he told the association's annual conference in Killarney.

Speaking directly to Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe, he said: "We already have the most limited in-school management system in the western world and I believe, minister, your Government will simply have to face this fact, otherwise the management and day-to-day discipline of our schools will break down."

Mr Merrick criticised other cuts as well, saying schools were losing over 20pc of their total grant income.

"When we know that our schools are already under-funded and are depending on up to 30pc of their income on fundraising from parents, how are schools to manage in the future?"

He added that one of the more regrettable features of the recent debate about these cuts was "the spin from Government that we have had to put up with, day in, day out".

"Would it not have been better for us all if we had more plain truth and less spin in the whole debate?" Mr Merrick asked.

- John Walshe Education Editor

THE country's highest paid university head has suggested that staff work for a week for nothing to help the college through the current financial crisis.

The move by University College Cork (UCC) president Dr Michael Murphy comes as university heads themselves consider a voluntary pay cut.

The pay cut proposal is on the agenda for a meeting of the Irish Universities Association (IUA) today -- but in return college bosses want discretion in relation to the recently announced embargo on filling posts.

Dr Murphy, whose remuneration package is worth in excess of €275,000 floated the 'free week' idea at a quarterly presentation to staff and students yesterday.

It would amount to pay cut of more than 2pc this year for UCC's 2,800 staff, yielding about €3.3m of €7m that the college has to save between now and Spetember. It is seen as an alternative to the loss of temporary staff. UCC has 400 staff on short-term contracts.

College staff were unimpressed. Last night a source said: "This is not going to happen. It is seen as an attempt to impose unacceptable conditions on junior and poorly paid staff while senior staff are refusing to set a headline in this regard."

Dr Murphy said UCC was heading for a deficit of €16m and in light of the ever tightening financial situation, further savings of €7m would be needed between now and September.

All the universities are under strict instructions from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) not to incur deficits this year and to work at reducing any accumulated debt.

Today's meeting of the IUA is not expected to take a final decision on the voluntary pay cut, the possible extent of which has not been specified.

Flexibility

Sources said the university heads were keen to show a lead on the pay front, but in return for any such gesture they wanted certain flexibility in handling the moratorium on appointments and promotions in the higher education sector.

Discussions on the implementation of the moratorium are under way between the Departments of Finance and Education and the HEA.

In his presentation to staff, Dr Murphy outlined a range of potential staff and non-staff related savings including non-renewal of temporary contracts, a cut in overtime costs, and other areas, such as a reduction in the subvention to the Glucksman Gallery.

He described a possible agreement to work without pay for a week -- as "the biggest value item on our list".

"I hesitated at proposing this at first; the sacrifice would be on top of what the Minister for Finance has imposed on us all. If implemented, it should not impact on our pensions and it should be a once-off, not establishing a precedent for next year.''

He told staff that there was "very little time available" to agree a menu of cuts.

- Katherine Donnelly