A campaign to force the re-building of an arson-hit school in Co Antrim is gathering momentum.

Amid claims of 'double standards' in the selective nature of funding for school building projects, protestors gathered outside the site of Whitehouse Primary School last week to call for work to begin immediately on a new building.

Construction of a new school to replace the one destroyed in an suspected sectarian arson attack last summer had been expected to get under way several months ago.

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However, the Department of Education has put the project on hold while a review of all its capital projects across Northern Ireland is carried out.

A group of around 300 people, including staff, parents and pupils, turned up at the former school site on the Doagh Road carrying placards calling on the Education Minister to sign off on the rebuilding project as a matter of urgency.

In response, the NI Education Minister Caitriona Ruane argued that the construction freeze has been forced on her by budgetary cutbacks.

However, the Sinn Fein Minister had at the same time approved funding for an Irish language school.

She said this "was exempt because its funds were released before a spending review began" and cut the sod on March 9 for construction of the school, Bunscoil Bheanna Boirche, in her South Down constituency.

See: Arson-Hit School Rebuilding In Doubt

(BMcC/GK)