A Special Needs school building in Co Kildare is no longer “fit for purpose”, with conditions “absolutely unacceptable”, a Fianna Fáil Senator has claimed.
Senator Fiona O’Loughlin was speaking of St Anne’s Special School in Ballymany, The Curragh this week in the Seanad.
Addressing Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth, Deputy Michael Moynihan, the senator requested “a clear and definitive update” on the timeline for the school’s long-awaited rebuild.
Senator O’Loughlin said: “St. Anne’s Special School was established in 1967 by Elizabeth Bermingham and her husband, Michael, who did wonderful work to help to set up KARE for the young people of Kildare, parts of Offaly and parts of Wicklow, with intellectual disabilities.
“The school moved to its present location in 1974. Generations of young people have gone through the school, including my own brother, Cathal. Cathal and I, as well as another brother, Brian, went to a fundraiser for the parents’ council on Friday last in Newbridge. It was lovely to catch up with very dedicated parents and the school community there.”
Senator O’Loughlin said St Anne’s, “a vital education facility”, serves children and young people aged four to 18 with moderate to severe and profound general learning disabilities.
The school, she added, provides “an essential service” not just to families within the Newbridge-Kildare-Curragh catchment, but also further afield.
According to Senator O’Loughlin, the conditions within the school are “absolutely unacceptable.”
She said the current funding is no longer sufficient to meet even the school’s basic operational and utility costs, with the result that some of the funding and resources intended for educational supports are being diverted to cover core expenses.
The Fianna Fáil senator continued: “The school building itself and the existing facilities are not fit for purpose. They are overcrowded and there is a lack of adequate accessibility. There are safety concerns.
“There is only one accessible toilet available for up to 40 senior students. Heating systems are unreliable and parts of the premises are unusable. Indeed, the school was forced to close during a cold spell last winter due to heating failure.”
Senator O’Loughlin told the Minister of State that planning permission for a new school building was granted by Kildare County Council in March 2022, and is valid until next March.
However, she noted, the project has yet to progress “beyond stage 2B.”
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Responding, the Minister of State said: “The Senator will understand that there is a huge envelope of money in the national development plan for investment in education right across the estates of the schools. This project has been ongoing and there has been huge engagement on it between the Department and the school authorities.
“…We are waiting for some documentation to come back from the design team with clarifications. I ask the Senator to use her good offices to ensure that is returned to the Department as a matter of urgency.
“I will give a commitment that those matters will then be looked at as speedily as possible in the Department.”
“…The Senator should rest assured that if we get the information back, we will progress the project as fast as humanly possible within the Department.”
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