Stormont’s Education Minister has said he will seek assurances that “proper processes” have been followed in a funding controversy surrounding a new football pitch for a Londonderry school.
It follows revelations from this newspaper that Lisneal College in the city had been awarded £710,000 in funding for a new football pitch, despite not having applied for the funding.
Paul Givan was appearing on BBC NI’s The Nolan Show a day after the Education Authority (EA) published a document clarifying their position on their minor works service – including the replacement of the pitch at Lisneal – more than two weeks after the original story was broken.
The document said minor works were capital works that cost between £1,000 and £1 million and that only projects with a value in excess of £1m would require departmental approval.
“Political opponents used this and created inferences around it, talking about a ‘pet project’” – Paul Givan MLA
The organisation also said the Lisneal project was one of six priority one projects included in the EA’s bid for 2024/25 funding in January 2024.
Priority one projects are those that meet “inescapable statutory requirements” such as health and safety, fire protection and obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act.
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Mr Givan said he hoped the document would reassure the public that the EA and his department had “nothing to hide”.
“Of course I asked questions about this particular project and how minor works schemes operate. That is something that will be reviewed,” he told the BBC.
“What I have sought is assurances that proper processes have been followed. That would be the normal thing to do.
The pitch at Lisneal College
“My accounting officer, who is the permanent secretary, will carry that out. He has engaged with EA Chief Executive in respect of this issue.
“That is part of the accountability mechanisms that my Department has to ensure there is oversight.
“EA has now published a detailed document; it is available in the public domain and I think it answers these questions in great detail. It speaks to the issues and highlights how the decision making process was carried out and that is the right approach.
“I know they will be going to the Committee and they will carry out their scrutiny work in respect of this project.”
Mr Givan criticised the Belfast Telegraph’s coverage of the story, and rounded on political opponents, who he accused of using the school to score “political points” after its principal Michael Allen spoke out about the impact of the controversy.
“Others used it within the Assembly, political opponents used this and created inferences around it, talking about a ‘pet project,” he said.
“Nearly every single MLA from every political party come to me about particular projects in their constituency. They say, “Paul, could you come to this school, I want them to get the following’ and they repeatedly ask and ask.
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Lisneal College Principal Michael Allen
“They are doing their job; I’ve no problem with them doing it, but they then shouldn’t frame something else for their own political advantage that somehow this was a pet project – it wasn’t.
“By all means, take me on, I’ve no issue with that, but to have used a school in that process I think is wrong and I think we saw the evidence of that in how the principal had to come out and publicly defend his position.”
It comes after Lisneal College principal Michael Allen announced to parents that he was stepping down from his position to take up a role as education adviser on the Department’s Strule Shared Education Campus in Omagh, Co Tyrone.
The new post is a three-year secondment to the Department, with the possibility of a fourth year, and was publicly advertised in October last year. Mr Allen was interviewed for the role in February 2025.
In a letter to parents, Mr Allen – who was made an MBE for services to education last year and was named head teacher of the year in 2021 – said he would be taking up his new role in “the coming weeks”.
It is understood an acting principal will be appointed to take over from Mr Allen.