Government puts off promised school build in Westport

Westport’s largest primary school is not on the Department of Education’s building list


Neill O’Neill

PLANS to build a new school in Westport in place of the town centres only and biggest primary school are hanging in the balance, after it was revealed last week that Scoil Phadraig is in fact not on a list of projects to be started up until 2017.
A meeting of Westport Town Council heard last week that the parents, Board of Management and teachers at the school were under the illusion that they were on a Department of Education  building list. It now transpires that they are in fact not on any list, despite having an architecturally designed school plan, full planning permission and a free site at their disposal on the Newport Road.
The council agreed that they needed to take swift action on the matter, and will seek to make a deputation directly to education minister, Ruairi Quinn.
Councillor Margaret Adams had raised the issue, saying that she remembers former Deputy Beverly Flynn pushing the matter as far as it had got.
Councillor Tereasa McGuire, herself a primary school principal, said it is important that the children are put first.
“This is unfair, there was a promise of three years [wait for the new school building] in 2006 and we need to put our full force behind the children and the staff. The quality of the learning in the school is in the premier league but they moved into that building when I was in senior infants and not much has been done with it since. It is archaic down there, yet they out perform many other schools. We need to stand together on this.”
Councillor Brendan Mulroy, who also attended the school, said that the school had been working on the basis of a new school being in the pipeline. He said that in Mayo, only St Bríd’s School in Castlebar is on the 2012 to 2017 schools building list.
“This is up to political will. In relation to the gaelscoil [in Westport] we went to Batt O’Keefe [then education minister] and we were told that it wouldn’t happen but it did. There is no guarantee that Scoil Phadraig will be on the 2017 building list either, we need to make a deputation to the current Minister.” He added that if Minister Quinn won’t meet them, they should protest outside the DΡil instead.
All councillors were in agreement on the fate of the school, with Cllr Christy Hyland reminding his colleagues that time was short against them. Cllr Ollie Gannon described the news as ‘devastating’.
In a letter, sent by the new school steering committee and principal StiofΡn ÓMórain to all parents of current pupils, they outline that they were promised a new school building within three years when the old Convent of Mercy girls national school and Christian Brothers boys school amalgamated in 2006.
They state that they are aware that there are currently schools which have been placed on the list ahead of them, despite not having a site, plans or planning permission.
“We are the biggest primary school in Westport with growing numbers, and yet the Department of Education continues to sideline our needs,” the letter states.