Department of Education tender for €4m refurbishment of controversial Mayo school building

THE Department of Education is planning to spend over €4 million renovating the old Scoil Phádraig National School building in Westport as temporary accommodation for the Sacred Heart Secondary School.

The controversial development will see the old Scoil Phádraig National School building on Altamont Street refurbished to include eleven general classrooms, a science room, a science prep room and store, offices, meeting rooms and a reception area along with ancillary staff and storage areas.

The Department of Education recently advertised a tender for the redevelopment of the old school building with the estimated value of the contract at €4.8 million excluding VAT. 

The decision to temporarily relocate the all-girls Sacred Heart Secondary School to the Altamont Street building has been controversial as the site had been earmarked for the location of the new Holy Trinity National School.

Those plans were controversially put on hold when the Department of Education outlined their intention to use the building as 'urgent temporary accommodation' for the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Westport. Their current building on Castlebar Street was deemed unsuitable and needs to be 'vacated as soon as possible'.

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The refurbished building will be used as temporary teaching accommodation for the nearby Sacred Heart Secondary School whilst their new school building is being developed.

In May, parents of pupils attending the Sacred Heart School were informed that temporary move to the 'refurbished Scoil Phadraig site' will now take place in March/April 2026 instead of the previously indicated date of September 2025. No estimated timeframe has been given as to how long the Sacred Heart School will be using the old Scoil Phadraig building as temporary accommodation. 

In a Disability Access Certificate Application Compliance Report prepared by Coady Architects for the Department of Education and Youth, they indicated that the Altamont Street building will continue to be used as a primary school by Holy Trinity School when vacated by the Sacred Heart School.

The current building has been vacant since 2017 and has recently been stripped back to shell and core and the main scope of the project involves renovation and retrofit of the existing building, including site works, resurfaced play areas and grass reseeded.

The works carried out on the former Scoil Phádraig building was the subject to planning enforcement proceedings by Mayo County Council against the Department earlier this year.

The council outlined in the letter that the warning was sent in relation to 'alleged unauthorised development' at the former Scoil Phádraig NS located on Altamont Street in Westport.

The letter stated that the 'alleged unauthorised development' consists of 'unauthorised widening of entrance and ancillary works' and 'unauthorised erection of hoarding fence'.

In May, following an application to declare if the work carried out on the old school building was considered development or exempted development, Mayo County Council decided that the work carried out materially affected the character of the area and as such the work carried out was development and is not exempted development.

The work carried out by the Department was heavily criticised by local councillors who have constantly voiced their opposition to the decision to relocate the Sacred Heart school to the site.

The current Holy Trinity NS building which is over 200 years old is located on the Newport Road in Westport and was declared ‘unfit for purpose’ following an inspection in 2010. This resulted in a decade-long campaign for a new home for Holy Trinity which led them to the Altamont Street site which was bought by the Department of Education.