The State has already spent €40m carrying out repair works on schools built by Western Building Systems.

Following separate investigations, fire safety breaches and structural defects were found at over 40 schools built by the company.

Repair works are ongoing at many of the schools, with remediation now complete at 14 of them.

Work is due to begin on eight more in the New Year.

The Education Minister Joe McHugh is this morning expected to tell his Cabinet colleagues that the cost of the work to date is €40m.

That includes the price for initial assessments of the schools, precautionary measures like scaffolding and fencing, repair works and fire safety upgrades.

The minister will reportedly tell Cabinet that the costs up to now have been taken out of the existing school building budget.

A request for extra funding is not expected to be made at today’s Cabinet meeting.