Five schools in Dublin are to be the subject of safety audits by the Irish Department of Education after a number of fire safety concerns were found at a school built by the construction firm responsible for the building contract.

The schools, Ardgillan Community College, Balbriggan, Scoil Naomh Lucais, Belmayne Educate Together, Greystones Educate Together and Mullingar Educate Together were constructed in 2008 under a ‘rapid build’ programme.

The Irish Examiner reports that after the board of the Rush and Lusk Educate Together National School (one of the schools built under the programme) sought an architect’s report over the decaying of the school’s building in 2014, a number of fire safety failings were revealed.

These included a lack of cavity barriers in walls to prevent the spread of flames, and the non-existence of special intumescent paint designed to protect steel girders in intense heat.

Follow-up inspections from Dublin Fire Brigade found that in the event of a blaze, students only had 20 minutes to evacuate instead of the standard 60 minutes.

Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan, told Newstalk Lunchtime: “There were five other schools that were built at the time in the same kind of processes.

"So we are inspecting those schools - we have no reason to believe that problem exists there, but we're going to inspect them to make sure.”

Original source

Irish Examiner

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