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Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD, has raised fresh questions and concerns about the 42 schools constructed by Western Building Systems which are currently being assessed for structural defects.
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We need answers to these questions for anxious parents, teachers and other school staff who have spent the mid-term break concerned about whether they will have safe buildings to return to next Monday.”
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD, has raised fresh questions and concerns about the 42 schools constructed by Western Building Systems which are currently being assessed for structural defects.
Deputy Shortall said:
“The Minister for Education needs to fully reassure students, teachers and parents that proper and thorough steps are being taken to handle these problems over the mid-term break. There are four important issues which must be urgently addressed.
1. The current assessments ordered by the Department of Education focus only on structural defects in this cohort of schools. These assessments must go beyond structural issues to also look at the extent of health and safety problems and shoddy workmanship in the buildings. Things like loose guttering or badly fitted windows may not be structural problems, but they nevertheless pose real dangers to pupils, teachers and school staff.
2. The Minister needs to come forward with clear assurances that the system put in place for assessing the safety of these buildings is completely transparent and that no conflicts of interest arise. It should go without saying that no contractors should be appointed by the Department to carry out safety assessments on school buildings where they previously worked as project managers.
3. We have yet to receive a proper answer from the Minister as to how it has happened that all of these problems have arisen at this time. All of these schools were certified by the Department itself as suitable for use. We need a clear timeline of events in order to understand how a situation arose where schools have been closed and urgent retroactive safety assessments ordered.
4. I understand that there have been previous instances of shoddy workmanship in some of the 42 schools and that these were remedied by the Department at public expense. I want to know whether these cases raised alarm bells with officials. Did they prompt the Department to carry out checks on all the other schools to see if they had the same defects? And if not, why not?”
Deputy Shortall added: “We need answers to these questions for anxious parents, teachers and other school staff who have spent the mid-term break concerned about whether they will have safe buildings to return to next Monday.”
ENDS
1 November 2018
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