Planning application error delays new school
Meitheamh 25, 2015
Parents of children at a run-down school have expressed “bewilderment” at an error in a planning application which will lead to another setback in a long-running battle to construct a new building.
Gaelscoil de hÍde New School Action Group in Fermoy, Co Cork, had mounted a lengthy campaign to get a new facility to replace archaic, cramped, conditions which 410 pupils are enduring.
After many false dawns and taking to the streets in protest, they had eventually been informed recently that the Department of Education had given the green light to build a new school on a site transferred to the department by Cork County Council.
However, the planning application sent to the county council on behalf of the Department of Education contained an error and the local authority determined it had to be resubmitted.
As a result, the process of building the new school has been further delayed.
“We’ve fought so hard to get to this point and while we’re delighted that things are finally happening it’s very demoralising to discover such a needless admin error means the wait must go on,” said Vivienne Dempsey, chairperson of the Gaelscoil de hÍde New School Action Group.
“Instead of making progress, we’re going backwards and the last three weeks have been wasted.”
Gaelscoil de hÍde principal Seán MacGearailt also said it was hard to believe such a simple error had occurred which would hold up the planning process.
“Any delay hurts because, potentially, it means our boys and girls must remain in the old cramped building for longer than they should,” Mr MacGearailt said.
“Don’t forget we were told that this school was to open last September (2014), and here we are waiting, waiting, waiting,” he said.
Currently, the pupils occupy a former vocational school on MacCurtain Street in the town centre. The original school had been designed to cater for half that number.
All-Ireland winning Kerry GAA player Tomás Ó Sé, who is a teacher at the school, once described conditions in the building as so poor that caged animals in Fota Wildlife Park had more space than the pupils.
Mr MacGearailt, however, said he still expects the new 24-classsroom gaelscoil to be opened by September 2016 as had been promised by government ministers last February.
