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Department slammed for stalling school extension

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

The Department of Education has been severely criticised for not honouring a promise it made last year to provide funding to a Southside school that has been waiting for a major extension for the last eight years.
In May of this year the department told staff and the board of Our Lady’s School in Templeogue that they were finally prepared to sanction funding for the long awaited extension to the secondary school.
The proposed extension comprises four general classrooms, two lecture rooms, one learning support room, two science laboratories, two arts rooms and two home economics rooms as well as other facilities.
However, last month the department reversed its decision to provide the funds for the project and the principal of the school, Grainne Friel, had to inform parents of the bad news.
Ms Friel said: “Parents were initially thrilled that we were getting all of these new facilities. We sent a letter out to all of them in May telling them what we were getting but then I had to turn around and say sorry. We were due to start construction on the building after the leaving cert finished last month.
The all-girls school currently caters for some 730 students and also has a massive waiting list of about 340 prospective pupils for just 120 places every year.
Ms Friel said the existing facility was originally built as a primary school and that the building does not have adequate space to accommodate senior students.
“Accommodation is key for the department,” she said. “And they are most interested in looking at schools that need extra accommodation. The building was never meant for the amount of students we have.
“Plus, the fact that the school was originally a primary school building means the classrooms aren’t actually large enough to accommodate the students. If you are trying to fit 30 seniors into a primary school classroom, it just doesn’t work.”
She also pointed out that the school has already spent e500,000 provided by the department in consultancy and planning fees to bring the proposal to fruition.
During an adjournment debate in the Dáil recently Deputy Brian Hayes (FG) urged Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe (FF) to sign off on the funding for the project when he announces the next phase of the schools building programme in September.
“It is a matter of deep frustration for the school authorities and parents that the decision to proceed to construction in June has been stalled under the school building and modernisation programme,” Deputy Hayes said.
“By raising this issue, I wish to highlight the community’s deep frustration with the fact that a project that has been a matter for the department for nearly a decade is still waiting to proceed to full construction stage.”
Acting on behalf of Deputy O’Keeffe the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Mary Wallace (FF), confirmed that the department was not giving the go-ahead for any more school building projects, including that for Our Lady’s School, at the present time.
“Indeed, as he [Minister O’Keeffe] has previously said, he will not be making any decision on further capital expenditure until he has completed a review of the department’s spending plans for 2008,” Minister Wallace said. “This process is currently under way and the minister expects it will take a number of months to complete.”
She added that under a band rating system employed by the department to assess the urgency of a school’s requirements for additional accommodation there were a number of schools other than Our Lady’s in Templeogue that were in greater need of extra facilities.

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