Government has No Plans for Secondary School
Posted by David O Byrne on August 24, 2008
While canvassing with TD Deirdre Clune we have been asked time and again if there are any plans for a secondary school for local children. Unfortunately the government has refused point blank to even consider building a secondary school for the Grange & Donnybrook area.
Deirdre Clune has informed me that, “The Minister for Education has refused point blank to even consider building a secondary school for the Grange and Donnybrook area. When questioned on the matter she said that traditionally pupils from this area go to school elsewhere.”
Prefabs under construction summer 08
I must say that I find that as an answer this is nothing short of ridiculous. Obviously the reason that they don’t traditionally go to a secondary school in the area is because there isn’t one there. This is an area of Cork which just over a decade ago was nothing but green fields and cows and didn’t need a secondary school. Today the area is home to thousands of young families with children who in a few short years will need a local secondary school but to the Minister it may as well still be an area full of cows.
The 2006 census confirmed that the population of the area affected grew by an astounding 35% in the decade between 1996 and 2006 making it one of the fastest growing areas of the country.
According to Deputy Clune “The Minister’s response shows the same lack of vision that has held up the building of a primary school in Rochestown for almost two decades and Passage West since 1998. The need for a secondary school for Grange & Donnybrook is obvious to every parent in the area but the attitude of the Minister is not to plan for the future but to wait for the crisis that is sure to come.”
The same lack of vision and lack of planning has prefabs being built onto Scoil Niocláis the brand new primary school in Frankfield, completed in 2004!
