Government has set aside $1.5 million to inspect public schools in the wake of the mould crisis at CedarBridge Academy.

About $4 million was needed last year to clean up the school which was closed when an inspection revealed it was riddled with mould.

Funding for school inspections was included in the Budget which has allocated $100m for the continuation of capital projects and $41 million for new projects.

The Works budget also included funds for building maintenance, which will include a yearly inspection of all public buildings, however, a figure was not supplied for the cost.

The $1.5 million is not intended for any further work on CedarBridge, although the school is still waiting on the decontamination of the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium.

In January Education officials said they were awaiting a consultant?s report on how to protect CedarBridge from recontamination and a Government spokesperson said it would be ready in ?a matter of weeks?.

The acting Education Minister, Dennis Lister, had suggested that there would be more recommendations once the consultant had delivered the report.

Paul Harshaw, a lawyer who is representing three teachers from CedarBridge Academy, said: ?I?m happy to hear they are doing something and if they are going to spend it on inspecting the schools and not on consultants, it?s great.

?However, they are not dealing with the people who have been affected by the mould.?

Mr. Harshaw said repeated letters to the Minister and the Attorney General had been ignored.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said: ?The Minister had plans to inspect all of the schools, which is in the budget, but the CedarBridge money will be funded through the supplementary fund.?

In addition to the money for school inspections, capital expenditures includes $20 million for a new cruise ship pier in Dockyard.

The new dock will accommodate the much larger Panamax vessels, which one travel agent said was always good news.

The agent, who did not want to be named, said: ?The more tourists we can get here the better and I think that Carnival is trying to bring a ship in and they are always larger than the ones we usually have.

?The new ships carry 2,200 people while the ships that visit regularly now can bring about 1,400 people.

?The only problem is that St. George?s might miss out and Dockyard might be overrun by the amount of tourists.?

A Dockyard restaurant manager, who also did not want to be named, felt that the new pier and the ships that would visit will be a great addition to area.

He said: ?I?m very excited, I think it?s fantastic and 95 percent of the tourists that visit Bermuda already come to Dockyard so I don?t think it would be overrun.?