In 2000, Meath County Council designated a small site for a new junior national school - for infants up to second class - on 65 acres of land owned by the Lyons family.
The new junior school, named Scoil Oilibheir Naofa, under principal Mary Carpenter, would be across the road from the existing senior national school, Scoil Spioraid Naoimh, under the overall principal, Maurice Daly.
In 2005, the Lyons siblings were offered 23 acres of residential zoning as an incentive to deal on the school site. They asked for 35 acres of residential zoning instead, offering 42 acres for community and recreational use in return, including a free four-acre site for the school. Jimmy Lyons also offered to swap a separate 3½-acre parcel - crucial to safe passage between the old and new schools - for another site.
The council held at 23 acres for residential use, with the caveat that not a single house could be built until the primary school had been provided on the original land. There was no mention of the smaller parcel.
Last May, the rezoned 65 acres (23 acres of which were rezoned for residential use and 42 acres zoned for community and recreation purposes) were sold to developer Tom Durkin, for 27.75 million. When he reportedly sought €1 million for the sale of the 4-acre school site, the Department of Education entered negotiations.
In October, the department announced it had "purchased" the site for the school from Tom Durkin. On January 29th, a planning notice for a temporary new school appeared on Jimmy Lyons's 3½-acre parcel. Lyons immediately lodged an objection.
This week, six months after the department's announcement, it emerged that the sale of the four-acre site for the permanent school on Durkin's land had, in fact, not been completed.
In a statement, the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, admitted to "difficulties" in relation to the land for the temporary school, and announced a "contingency plan", believed to refer to a site on yet another part of Durkin-owned land. "The owner of this land has given his written consent to the planning application," she stated. Jimmy Lyons seemed to be out of the picture.
A spokeswoman seemed confident that everything would work out in the end. "Negotiations are ongoing. Our officials have been in touch with all the vendors."