Cathal BarrySchool managers calling on the Government to provide insurance for schools used as polling stations
Already under-funded Catholic schools are facing soaring insurance premiums as a result of serious accidents on election days, The Irish Catholic can reveal. School managers are now calling on the Government to step up and provide insurance for schools used as polling stations so hard-pressed boards of management don’t have to foot the bill if a voter falls or injures themselves.
The majority of polling stations around the country are located in local – mostly Catholic – schools.
A senior Church official described the Government’s current approach as “unreasonable”.
Fr Tom Deenihan, who heads the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA), said boards of management “are happy schools are used as polling stations as it is an important service to the community and to democracy”.
However, he warned that when school capitation budgets have been slashed by the Government, the current situation is unsustainable.
Fr Deenihan confirmed that there has already been serious accidents in schools across the country which necessitated schools’ insurers paying out substantial damages.
Fr Deenihan said that, as he understood it, returning officers, who are responsible for overseeing elections, are covered by the State’s insurance.
“Boards of management are now asking that they too be covered by State insurance while the schools are being used as polling stations,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, which is responsible for the conduct of elections and referendums told this newspaper that there are “no plans” to indemnify schools against claims that arise from the use of schools as polling stations.
The spokesperson insisted, however, that if the schools’ public liability insurance cover is found to be inadequate, “it is possible that the legal liability for some claims will fall on the State”.