Barry Gardiner has said the overspends must be resolved

Education Minister Barry Gardiner said he was concerned there was no hint of the budgets going into the red until a few weeks ago.

The South Eastern and the Belfast boards are each reported to be in the red by over �5m.

Independent accountants have been brought in to investigate.

The situation is not connected to the minister's instruction to all boards in June to check schools' spending.

Mr Gardiner has told the chairpersons of the two boards to resolve the situation quickly.

"If you look at the overall size of their budgets - we are talking about �240 odd million in each of their cases - and in percentage terms people may look at this and say: 'Well, it's maybe 2-3% of their budgets - is that really so much?'

"It's a heck of a lot of money when what we are trying to do at all levels is focus the maximum resources on children."

He added: "Different and higher standards rightly apply when dealing with public money."

'Options'

"I believe it is right that the boards themselves should undertake this work and I have asked them to come back to me with clear action plans.

"I expect them to tackle the root causes with courage and decisiveness.

"Clearly, once we are satisfied as to the exact scale and causes of these overspends, we will need to explore options for recovery."

Jim Rodgers, vice-chairman of the Belfast Education and Library Board, said he was horrified when he heard about the overspend.

"But I think it is important to point out that there is no misappropriation of funds," he said.

"There is quite clearly an overspend. We are carrying out a full investigation - we hope it will be completed within the next few weeks."