Local TD Deirdre Clune has called on the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe to take steps within his Department to progress the building of a new school in Passage West.

I have been informed by the Department of Education that it has received a revised outline sketch of the new school from the design team. This submission is now being examined by the Department’s Professional & Technical staff and waiting approval.

Over the last few months I have been in constant contact with the Department trying to progress the building of a new school in Passage West and now that the process has reached this point I believe that the Minister for Education now has the opportunity to move this matter towards the planning stage.

Parents and teachers in Passage West are completely frustrated with the slow progress in building a school which has been promised for over a decade. They fear that in September another generation of school children in Passage will start their primary education in the same prefabs in which their older brothers and sisters spent their entire primary education. Unfortunately this is likely unless there is the political will to urgently build a new school.

The Minister of Education must not use the current economic downturn as an excuse to delay vital education spending. Such excuses show the Government’s total lack of understanding that education is the key to our future prosperity long after this economic downturn has passed.