New schools to be housed in prefabs
Minister Bruton under fire
THE majority of the 42 new schools given the green light will first be housed in temporary accommodation, Education Minister Richard Bruton admitted yesterday.
Meanwhile pupils of one Dublin primary school have been in prefabs for 22 years, it emerged.
Máire Ní Ghallchóir is the principal of Gaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna which first opened its doors to pupils in 1996. But 22 years later, the staff still find themselves working in their nine classrooms and sports halls in prefabs.
Ms Ní Ghallchóir says that she is very proud of the work that goes on in the mixed-sex Gaelscoil but she told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘We really do need a permanent structure, because these prefabs won’t last forever.’
The school is set to get a new building for its 245 pupils on the site where they are currently located, but they have been waiting for more than two decades for this permanent structure. The school spends a sizeable portion of its budget on ‘huge’ heating bills.
The exceptionally long wait emerged as Education Minister Richard Bruton confirmed many of the 42 new primary and secondary schools, which are due to be established over a four-year period starting in 2019, will start in temporary accommodation before they are given permanent homes.
Speaking yesterday as he announced the scheme, which will provide 20,000 new school places, Mr Bruton was asked about the use of prefabs and he said there is a ‘programme which will start next year in replacing’ these structures.
These temporary structures will then be given permanent homes which will be ‘state-of-the-art school facilities’, he added.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s Education Spokesman Thomas Byrne raised questions about the financial planning for this building project, which he claims is ‘equivalent in cost’ to the minister’s ‘capital budget for a year’.
He added: ‘The idea that the need for 42 new schools is coming as a surprise to the department is extraordinary.
‘It points to a lack of planning to meet demographic change and a chaotic process for identifying future education needs.’
emmajane.hade@dailymail.ie
‘It points to a chaotic process’