Fine Gael Councillor John O’Malley condemned the Department of Education for their inadequate provision of funding for school projects, stressing that “principals and boards of management are chasing councillors for their Notice of Motion money” in order to complete school works which are not provided for in Department funding.
The Westport councillor, who made these comments at the recent electoral area committee meeting, said that he does not want to criticise those seeking the money to complete school facilities, but as the Department is failing to provide substantial funding to complete school projects this has led to Notice of Motion money being spent on “three to four schools in Mayo this year”.
This funding, according to the councillor, could have helped “alleviate some dangerous bends” in the area and said that it was “just not good enough” that because of the Department’s shortcomings this money is not spent “doing the work which we should be doing”.
