Education Minster: More school closures not ruled out
The Government has refused to rule out having to close more schools over serious fire and structural safety risks at the sites — and has conceded that some older pupils may be sent to other schools next week to allow for ongoing repairs to take place.
Education Minister Joe McHugh said the “evolving situation” means he cannot give any firm guarantees that more closures will not happen. He also insisted officials will sue the company which built the schools to re-coup State losses.
“Where we’re at now with the assessment, I can say all the schools that have been assessed and fully assessed we are putting in solutions for those,” he said.
Because it’s such an evolving situation there are still schools that will need to be assessed, so that will be evolving and as soon as we get that information we’ll be in touch with the schools.
Speaking to reporters in in Tullamore, Co Offaly, Mr McHugh confirmed all 42 at-risk schools will have been examined by this evening.
To date, Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in Lucan, Tyrrelstown Educate Together, and St Luke’s National School have been forced to shut while emergency repair works take places.
Ardgillan National School is set to reopen next week, while “protective decking” will have to be installed at Scoil Chaitlín Maude in Tallaght and Castlemills Further Education Centre in Balbriggan, with 21 schools still being examined.
Mr McHugh yesterday continued to insist that the firm which built the schools, Tyrone-based Western Building Systems, is entirely responsible for what happened and said the Government will take widescale legal action if necessary.
He added that while schools and parents will be kept informed with a full update later this afternoon, the reality is the controversy means some schools will only partially reopen next week and that older pupils may be sent to other schools in the short-term while repairs take place.
“We’re looking at a solution for the ground floors, and if it means moving the older cohort of children to other accommodation that’s what we’re working on currently,” he said.
Western Building Systems last night repeated its view that it is not responsible for the errors, and said its offer to meet with Mr McHugh still stands.
