O’Keeffe offers developers school build-and-lease plan

THE Government is to ask developers to join a school build-and-lease scheme that could speed up the replacement of crumbling schools and also offer a lifeline to the ailing construction industry.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe told the Irish Examiner he is urging developers to build schools that the department would lease for a number of years and then buy.

It is one of a number of measures he is proposing to get more schools off the long waiting list for essential works and maximise the number of projects delivered by the Government’s €4.5 billion school building programme, as set out under the National Development Plan.

“We see it as a stimulation of the construction industry, it’s not going to be easy to kick off but it’s an avenue we’re open to exploring,” said Mr O’Keeffe. “There’s a downturn in construction and my door is open for business. I’m depending on the industry to react.”

The minister is also looking at the option of providing new primary schools through Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements with developers, who would design and build schools, but not have to maintain them over the lifetime of the contract, as is normal in PPP deals for colleges and second-level schools.

His announcement comes as an international report ranks spending on education — up to and including third level — well below most other developed countries. The report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows Ireland needs to spend almost €150m more on education just to match the average allocated from primary to third level in 26 other countries.

It shows while national wealth more than doubled in the decade to 2005, education spending only increased by 81%.

On the day that more than 56,000 students collect their Junior Certificate results, with encouraging grades in maths and science, it also emerged Ireland is 27th out of 29 countries for the amount of national wealth per head of population spent on each second-level student, while primary pupils here are schooled in the second most crowded classes in the EU.

Irish Examiner

www.buckplanning.ie

Satellite aid on school places

The Department of Education is to use new satellite technology to help it ascertain where schools will need to be built in future to meet local needs.

It is predicted that the schoolgoing population will increase by some 100,000 over the coming years, raising the primary school population to well over 500,000.

Last September a lack of school places in north Dublin meant some children could not start school immediately when the new term began.

The department is today advertising in national newspapers for tenders to supply a geographical information system (GIS) which will allow the forward planning section of the Department of Education and Science to use an up-to-date technical solution to help in planning the location of schools in the future.

Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin said the department was identifying the areas where significant additional school accommodation would be needed for 2009 and onwards.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie