PARENTS AND school management at a long-established Gaelscoil in Galway have condemned the Government decision to omit it from the latest school building programme.
The board of management and parents’ committee have promised a “campaign of action” to reverse the decision.
Galway West TD Brian Walsh of Fine Gael has also questioned why the Department of Education plans to build a new primary school in Knocknacarra, one of the city’s largest surburbs, while the existing nearby Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh has had its extension shelved.
Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh, an all-Irish, Catholic co-educational primary, was established in a rented house in the then developing western suburb of Knocknacarra on the Galway Gaeltacht boundary in 1993. It eventually moved into a purpose-built eight-class school in 1999. However, more than half of the 460 pupils on its roll have spent much, if not all, of their school life in prefabs, due to its rapid expansion. The school secured approval for an extension in 2009, and the Department of Education had already paid for architectural designers and quantity surveyors for the project.
When the department signalled inclusion of a third primary school for the suburb, it attracted patronage applications from Educate Together, City of Galway VEC, Lifeways Ireland Ltd and An Foras Pátrúnachta. Mr Walsh said that “under no circumstances should the development of a new school proceed until the needs of existing primary schools in the area were addressed”. He said he had contacted Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn, who had agreed that officials from his department would meet local school principals to discuss the demographic needs.
“Our 460 children, and teaching staff have patiently endured overcrowded and substandard accommodation for far too long and this unjust decision to shelve our building project at the 11th hour and without warning defies belief,” said Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh principal Dairíona Nic an Iomaire yesterday.
The department said that the five-year programme was focused on meeting demographic needs, and the Galway city area showed a requirement of 47 additional mainstream classrooms by 2017. This increase was concentrated on Knocknacarra in the west and Doughiska in the east, which was provided with a school in 2010. A new Knocknacarra school in 2013 would cater for extra demand, it said. It said the building project for Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh was at an advanced stage of architectural planning, with detailed design approval issued by it on January 10th, 2012, and it would “continue to advance this project”.
