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Education Minister Ruairí Quinn has urged schools to complete contracts aimed at significantly reducing their energy costs as soon as possible.

Some 1,700 schools across the country have been included in this new drive to cut electricity costs by between 10-15% per school. The savings that can be made are estimated to be in the region of €1 million overall.

Schools who are involved in the centralised electricity procurement competition are eligible for the savings. This initiative is being run by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) in cooperation with the Department of Education and Skills and school management bodies.

In order for schools to make the savings they need to return their completed contracts as soon as possible. So far around 1,000 schools have completed and returned their contracts.

Speaking at one of the schools in line to make these savings, Inchicore National School, Sarsfield Road, Inchicore, Minister Quinn said:

This is a great opportunity for schools to make a significant saving on their electricity costs,” he said.

Because of our economic situation, we have unfortunately had to ask all schools to do more with less – but through a very simple process of filling in and returning a form, schools will make large savings on energy costs and can use this money in other areas.