The cost of providing temporary accommodation for Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School has risen to over €11 million while the school continues to wait for a permanent home.
Louth Labour TD, Ged Nash says he has pushed the Minister for Education to set out a timeline for the delivery of a permanent home for the school but was disappointed with the response.
Deputy Nash said: “According to the Department’s most optimistic estimates, this school will wait at least another three to four years for delivery of a permanent home and all the while, fortunes are being spent on temporary accommodation.
“This is completely unacceptable given that we were originally told to expect planning permission to be lodged in 2022 with a clear expectation that the permanent school would be built and occupied by 2025 at the latest.
“The school opened in 2019 and four years later, is no closer to a permanent home, having to expand by adding more and more prefabs to cater for a rapidly expanding school population. Regardless of the good quality of the modular units, the school community should be entitled to their permanent school buildings, playing pitches and other facilities.”
In response to a Parliamentary Question on the issue from Deputy Nash, the Department of Education revealed that the school was in “early architectural planning” and that it anticipated the project would seek planning approval in the second quarter of this year.
However, the Department states that the tender process, following the granting of planning permission will take a further eight to 10 months and construction could take 82 weeks.
Deputy Nash said: “The Department has spent an eye-watering €11.7 million on providing temporary accommodation for the school, since it opened while the wait goes on for a permanent home.”
The Louth and East Meath Labour TD said: “The Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School badly needs this new accommodation to meet the demand for places at what is a fantastic school. The demand for places at the Mill Road school speaks for itself in terms of the school’s success.
“I have said from the outset that it would make financial sense for the Department to have run the lengthy planning process for the permanent school building in parallel with the process for temporary accommodation so the permanent school building could be built earlier. It would also make sense for our community and in terms of the educational and social needs of students.”
Deputy Nash concluded: “Just because school development always happened a certain way does not mean that the same system has to pertain in perpetuity.
“With major costs already incurred and the clock-ticking, the Department of Education should now use every means at its disposal to fast-track the development of a much-deserved permanent school building for DETSS.”
