Not too long ago, I posted about a design consultant specialising in school buildings who had gone to the papers to warn about the fact that the Department of Education, with the assistance of the planning authorities, was trying to kill off the school extension programme. What was happening, apparently/allegedly, was that the planning authorities were demanding that the scope of work on a typical school extension project be increased to the point where overall costs would exceed the €380,000 limit which the Department grant would cover, thereby ensuring that the project wouldn’t progress. The consultant, who says he was later threatened that projects on which he was engaged would receive harsher treatment from the powers-that-be if he didn’t keep his mouth shut, warned that hundreds of people involved in the school building programme would lose their jobs if the corruption of the system continued.

Well, in a related development, here’s what happened recently on a school extension project in Tipperary. After months of to-ing and fro-ing, planning permission was finally granted on a very modest, very necessary proposal. The contractor, who had been sitting on the sidelines for months, finally signed a contract to complete the work for an amount safely below the €380,000 limit. But then, absolutely out of the blue and without prior warning, the Department of Education demanded that the contractor reduce his tender figure by 4%! Or else! The contractor refused. The project is stone dead. And what I'd like to know is the name of the person who came up with the '4% saving idea' so I can write him/her a nasty letter.

(By the way, the consultant/whistle-blower I mentioned at the start of the piece? He and about fifteen colleagues have since lost their jobs because none of the school extension projects they were working on could get planning permission. He has a lot more to say about the situation and I intend to provide him with a platform.)