Gaels coil Chill Mhantáin‘ignored’

March 2009

REPEATED attempts to secure the future of Gaelscoil Chill Mhantain have been met with deafening silence by the Department of Education.

The lease on the current Merrymeeting site in Rathnew is up in a year’s time and the Department still haven’t come up with alternative plans for a new home for the gaelscoil.

According to school chairman Cian Molloy: ‘ the department aren’t answering our calls at all.

‘ They are just keeping their head down and won’t respond. We are actually spending more on the rent of the site than if we were actually paying a mortgage.’

The Merrymeeting site has already been chosen as the location for the amalgamated boys and girls schools planned for Rathnew.

Developers have offered the gaelscoil a site for free near Wicklow Rugby Club but the department have been reluctant to make any sort of commitment.

In 2006, the possibility of the school moving to a 1.6 acre site at Crinnion Park was rejected by the Department, even though the land was owned by them and was zoned for educational use.

The unwillingness of the department to even discuss the options open to the gaelscoil is a worry.

‘We still have to keep pushing them. But the school is getting bigger all the time, meaning there will be more schoolchildren than ever left on the side of the road if a new home isn’t found’ added Mr Molloy.