IPPN

Published: 20 February 2009

Source: Munster Express

Tramore Gaelscoil, 24 years old and still awaiting delivery of a proper home for its 200 pupils and 8 teachers, have decided to go it alone in engaging architects to design a suitable building, in defiance of an Education Department with which it has become totally frustrated.

Its plan is for a twelve-classroom school to accommodate 300 children on the Crobally Upper site currently occupied by prefab units. The permanent structure was sanctioned by the Department in 2006, following years of persistent campaigning, but it has since failed to proceed with the appointment of a design team and a technical examination of the site, as a pre-requisite for commencing construction.

Tired of waiting, the Board of Management sought permission to do that themselves, but the Department said "no".

"We burned that response and decided to go ahead ourselves in any event", School Principal Daithi de Paor told Tuesday night's meeting of Tramore Town Council. He was reporting to the Council on the up-to-date situation and seeking its support for the Management Board's plan of action, which was readily forthcoming.

"We have heard all the excuses from the Department and now we need our cause championed politically at local and national level", he said, describing the lack of a proper school structure as "a shame".

One room

Mr de Paor recalled that the Gaelscoil started out in 1985, in a single room within Tramore House provided by the Council's predecessors, the Town Commissioners. Initially there was one teacher and 29 pupils.

In 1989, with demand growing, the school moved to Stella Maris House where it expanded through the following years from 3 to 5 rooms. There it remained until 2003 at which stage there was a transfer to the current site, identified by the Management Board and purchased in due course by the Department of Education. Currently 8 prefab classrooms are located there.

In November 2006 the Department agreed to build 12 classrooms on the site, but it has since failed to progress the development and 27 months on the wait continues.

"We are not included among schools listed for architectural planning and it is in that knowledge and through total frustration that we are proceeding ourselves with a view to presenting a proposal to the planning authority and then, hopefully passed, confronting the Department with it", Mr de Paor told the Council.



He disclosed that dhb Architects of Broad St in Waterford had undertaken to do the relevant work free of charge and said a number of public meetings had been held to garner support and guidance from parents and the general public. The next of those is listed for the Grand Hotel on Thursday, February 26. "We want the project to be community driven", he said.



Tramore Development Committee and Waterford Leader Partnership had come on board and Mr Michael Power from the latter organisation was in attendance at the Council meeting with Mr de Paor.

Full support

Said Mr de Paor: "We want the public to be aware of the stark fact that we are 24 years without a proper school building and continue to be ignored by the Department in our efforts to have one provided, despite having a suitable site available.

Mr Power said he envisaged the new building doubling up as a community centre when not in use as a school. There were at least 60 groups and organisations who had expressed an interest in its use, he confirmed. "Hopefully within two or three years we will have a Gaelscoil doubling up as a well utilised community centre", he added.

Mayor Raymond Hayden, pledging the Council's full support, said it was nothing short of a scandal that a school so badly needed had not been built.

Other members spoke in like vein and Town Manager Brian White said that from a County Council perspective every assistance possible would be given.