We just want our new school open, pupils tell Foley
PUPILS from a Co. Kildare primary school have delivered 555 letters to Leinster House, in protest over a seven-year delay in the completion of their new school building.
The fifth and sixth class pupils from Mercy Convent Primary School in Naas travelled to Dublin yesterday to appeal to Minister for Education Norma Foley to help get the long-awaited building finished and opened.
Construction began in 2017, and the 32-classroom building is almost complete.
However, the school’s 555 pupils have spent the past seven years being educated in a temporary two-storey prefab, while the new building lies empty next door.
RTÉ reported that it was made weather tight two years ago, and that €7,500 is being spent every week on 24-hour security at the building’s two entrances, which amounts to €390,000 per year.
Problems began two years into its construction when difficulties arose with the builder.
There was then a three-year pause, during which its new windows became weather damaged after being left lying outdoors.
Work resumed in March 2021, including the installation of a fresh set of windows.
It still needs a full fitout inside, including plastering the walls and decorating.
Principal Cathal Ruane said: ‘By the time this building is completed it will be, if not “the” most expensive, then one of the most expensive schools ever built in this country.’
He said the school community was running out of patience. The sixth class pupils involved in the protest had been in junior infants when construction on the new school building first began.
During that time, they have had no PE hall, and the prefab building sits on the school’s playing field. Sixty pupils share just three toilets.
‘We are looking for answers. The kids want their say,’ Mr Ruane said. ‘They are the ones [the fifth and sixth class pupils] who have lost out. They will leave the school never having had the chance to enjoy a proper school building.’
In a post on social media, the school said: ‘Big shout-out to the cohort of 5th and 6th class pupils who represented us admirably by delivering 555 letters to Leinster House.
‘Here’s hoping Minister Foley will issue the letter of intent without delay.’ Assistant principal Brian Corkery told KFM: ‘We’re just at a lost cause at the minute and we are fighting our case now and trying to get this project fast-tracked. ‘We decided that our next step would be to ask our 555 kids to write individual letters and to hand deliver them personally to Leinster House.’
The Department of Education confirmed that the original contract was terminated ‘due to issues on site’.
It said that analysis and review of the latest tender report to complete the building was at an advanced stage.
‘The next step in relation to the project is the authorisation to issue the Letter of Intent to the successful tenderer,’ the Department said.
‘Once the contractor has been appointed, it is expected that it will take approximately 15 months to complete the project.’
‘The kids just want their say’