8th October 2009 - Private Sector Can Provide Solutions to Unspent Education Budget
- Last Updated: Friday, 09 October 2009 15:20
Almost half of all architects, quantity surveyors and engineers have been made redundant due to the recent decline of the construction industry. Meanwhile, the Department of Education and Science has been unable to process the expenditure of the budget it was given for school buildings in 2009. To mitigate the risk of this budget being returned to the Department of Finance, the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) is recommending that Minister O'Keeffe enables his department to outsource this work to the 100s of firms that are shedding key construction professionals.Today, IPPN Director Seán Cottrell said "By contracting experienced private sector firms, the pressure on the Department's Building Unit can be relieved. This will ensure that the 2009 budget for school buildings will be distributed to projects by fast-tracking them through the final stages of approval."
In a survey of Principals conducted by IPPN this morning, 89 schools are currently awaiting the final go ahead from the Department's Building Unit to invite tenders and commence development. It will be a tragedy if these schools lose out on the opportunity to build or extend, not because of the lack of finance, but due to the lack of capacity to complete the approval process.ENDS
