Taoiseach could have resolved Educate Together row – Cllr Kilcoyne

State owns several buildings in Castlebar that are suitable for a temporary school

Áine Ryan

ONE phone call by Taoiseach Enda Kenny would have resolved the Castlebar Educate Together debacle that has left a principal and ten pupils with no school to attend this week - that is the view of Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne, who topped the poll in last year’s local elections. He said ‘the  state had loads of resources in Castlebar and needn’t have depended on the church for a home for the school.”
When The Mayo News suggested that the Taoiseach could not interfere in the process, Cllr Kilcoyne said: “All he had to do was to pick up the phone and tell the minister, who he appointed, to sort this out. He didn’t have to intervene any further,” Kilcoyne said.
There was widespread speculation for weeks that the county’s second Educate Together school could not proceed at the former Burren NS, a divested Catholic school that had been closed for over 30 years and is in significant disrepair. This was confirmed last Wednesday when the non-denominational patron said it had been issued with an ultimatum to either accept the old school or defer the opening until next year. The local Educate Together officer and parents’ group had been working on identifying a temporary premises for the school.   
Kilcoyne said that Mayo County Council is the second-biggest landlord in the county after NAMA and has several suitable sites that could have been offered as an interim measure.
“The local authority owns Marsh House, the former town council offices, which is vacant. It also owns the old military barracks and the old Imperial Hotel, which was earmarked as new Town Council offices before the authority’s abolition.
The VEC bought a building for €1 million a year ago which is empty, and yet these children have no classroom,” he said.

‘Disgraceful’
HIS council colleague, Sinn Féin’s Cllr Thérèse Ruane said it ‘was disgraceful that the school was not opening’.
“All that was needed was a department decision to allow the school to get up and running in a temporary location. I’m really disappointed that An Taoiseach didn’t make an intervention to ensure that the school could get the go-ahead in his home town. I’m calling on him to intervene now. The children, people and parents of Castlebar deserve better,” Cllr Ruane said.  
Ten pupils were enrolled in the school, which has an appointed principal and a Department of Education roll number.
The old Burren NS, located five miles from the town, was offered to the department by the Archdiocese of Tuam as part of its divestment process. However, in consultation with parents, Educate Together said it was not fit for purpose and accepting it would ‘result in a reckless waste of taxpayers’ money’.  

Correspondence
MEANWHILE Educate Together has said that ‘[at] no time’ did it ‘enter into an agreement with the Department of Education and Skills that the long-term accommodation of the school would be the site of the abandoned Burren National School’.
In a statement last week, Educate Together said it had made it clear to the department for several months that the Burren NS was not a suitable location. A spokesperson said it only received correspondence from the Department on August 24 requiring formal confirmation that this location would be the long-term accommodation as a condition for the school to open in temporary accommodation on September 1, 2015.