Fears for 30 more schools af ter closure over safety

THE Department of Education is to carry out structural inspections of 30 schools after 200 students had to be evacuated from a Dublin school.

News of further examinations comes just days after the discovery of ‘significant structural issues’ at Ardgillan Community College in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.

The schools in question were all built by Tyrone-based Construction Company Western Building Systems and the Department of Education has said that inspections will commence in the coming weeks.

On Friday, engineers carrying out fire remediation work at Ardgillan Community College discovered that ties that fix the exterior walls to interior walls were inadequate and a decision was taken to close the school building immediately.

The Department of Education has now decided to examine the structure of all school buildings built by Western Building Systems between 2008 and 2013.

They told RTÉ news that the priority would be given to schools built by the company in 2008 and 2009.

These were so-called ‘rapid-build’ modular schools, constructed quickly to meet an acute school shortage at the time.

The department has said that the minister’s ‘number one priority’ was the safety and welfare of students and staff.

All of the 30 schools have already had fire safety assessments carried out over the past year.

These examinations were made on foot of fire safety breaches that were discovered in six schools built by Western Building Systems.

The Department of Education told RTÉ that minor fire safety problems were discovered in all the schools.

One school built by Western Building Systems in 2008 is due to be demolished shortly.

The construction firm was building six schools on behalf of the State last year.

It is currently building one school, Shellybanks Educate Together in Sandymount, Dublin.

The Department of Education said oversight on construction projects now is ‘vastly different’ to the regime that was in place between 2008 and 2013.

There was disagreement in September of last year between the department and Western Building Systems as to responsibility for the failings.

The CEO of Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board has said he expects all students at Ardgillan Community College can be accommodated ‘in some place’ after the midterm break, but warned it could take up to a year for repairs to be completed.

Paddy Lavelle said students could be accommodated at other sites in the area, or in prefabs on the school site.

‘We would expect that after the midterm break we will be able to accommodate all students in some place, whether it’s in other accommodation in the area or else in prefabs on the site,’ he said.

‘It will take some time to get prefabs onto the site. Once the structural engineer opens up some more, we will know more.’

Mr Lavelle said that for the time being, it was necessary to leave the building unoccupied for safety reasons.

‘It will take some time to remediate the works so it could be up to a year,’ he told RTÉ,’ he added.

The Department of Education and Western Building Systems had not responded to queries when contacted by this newspaper last night.

Constructed quickly