Labour TD Ged Nash has slammed the Minister for Education for failing to provide a start date for a delayed school building project at Ardee Educate Together National School (ETNS).
Builders should already be on site for the long-promised new school building project but it was halted at the last minute by the Minister, Norma Foley, TD, who gave construction inflation as the reason for pressing the pause button on the badly-needed new school building.
Following the shock announcement that the project had been shelved just days before it was due to begin, Deputy Ged Nash TD quizzed the Minister on the issue and called on her to give a start date for the project.
Deputy Nash said that the response he rceived was completely unacceptable as it gives no timeline for the delivery of the new school and meanwhile, the school’s staff and pupils have to struggle on in what he termed “a mish-mash of unsuitable buildings” on two sides of a busy road.
The Department of Education says it is “reviewing” the tender for the project and “engaging” with the Department of Public Expenditure on funding but provides no start date for the project.
Deputy Nash said: “The school should be looking forward to a bright new future today, with construction on site on their new school. Instead, they are set to carry on coping with a situation that sees pupils accommodated in prefabs, a 200-year-old building that is not fit-for-purpose and a converted warehouse.
“It is indicative of the desperation of the school for a solution that it has even offered moving the entire school to the converted warehouse as a temporary measure, while it waits on a new building.
“It’s an intolerable situation for the hard-working staff of the school and the children being educated there. They have been treated shabbily by the Minister and her department and deserve better.”
The Louth Labour TD added: “Blaming inflation has become an easy get-out clause for this government. This should have been factored into estimates for the project. There is no budgetary excuse for not progressing this project in a time when we are running budget surpluses.
“I call on the Government to give the Ardee ETNS community what they need and deserve and deliver this new school project, now.”
Deputy Nash has raised the issue in the Dáil a number of times since the shock announcement of the project’s delay was made and invited constituents to sign an online petition, calling on the government to immediately commence the long-promised project.
The Labour Party, this week, proposed a motion on a range of education issues which called for the Department of Education to begin construction on 58 paused school building projects around the country, including Ardee ETNS.
Deputy Nash said he will continue to press the Minister on the issue until a solution for the school is delivered.
