Nobody knows where new school goes

The Department of Education has not offered any clarity on last week’s nebulous promise to build a new secondary school somewhere between Galway City and Oranmore.

Education Minister Richard Bruton, last week, said a new post-primary school would open in Galway in 2019.

The Minister’s statement said the school would cater for 1,000 pupils; it would be based in either the city or Oranmore; and it would offer a “regional solution”. The promised Galway project was one of 42 schools countrywide that Minister Bruton said would open over the next four years.

However, the Department of Education has remained tight-lipped about the plans.

Despite making the announcement to much fanfare last Thursday, and despite repeated requests from this newspaper for clarity on the planned development, the Department of Education declined to shed any further light on the project.

It did not respond to queries about the location of the planned school, about planning permission, design, cost and the contract tender. It also declined to give a timeline for the various stages of the process; and failed to confirm whether or not the 2019 target date for opening was “optimistic”.

Though nebulous and lacking detail, the announcement of a new school for Galway has fuelled fears that smaller works in existing schools are likely to be put on the back-burner because the vast majority of available capital funding is being sucked-up by the planned new 42 schools.

The announcement of a new Galway school was welcomed by two local Fine Gael TDs – Seán Kyne and Hildegarde Naughton – but their press statements offered no further clarity on these matters.

Minister of State, Seán Kyne, said the patronage process for the new school will commence this year. He said he did not want to pre-empt that process but added “it would make sense” to have a new school managed by a patron not already in Galway.

“An obvious example is the Educate Together model, which does not yet have a second-level school in Galway. A new school under that patron would serve the hundreds of pupils attending the Educate Together primary schools in Galway,” said the Fine Gael Galway West TD.

Educate Together is an independent non-government organisation that runs schools that guarantee equality of access and esteem to children irrespective of social, cultural or religious background.

Kyne’s party and constituency colleague, Hildegarde Naughton also mentioned Educate Together as a possible patron. “I have been involved in the campaign for an Educate Together second level school for Galway for the past three years. We have five Educate Together Schools in Galway City and County at primary level and none at second level. This announcement means that Educate Together will be able to apply for the patronage of a new school. It is an application I will strongly support,” Deputy Naughton said.