By Paul McElwee
A protest took place yesterday (Wednesday) outside Scoil Mhuire in Milford as part of the community’s ongoing fight for a new school building.
Current pupils and staff were joined by previous attendees and teachers as well as the local parish priest, to highlight their plight.
Louise McLarnon of the Parents’ Association at the school is imploring the Department of Education to stop ‘sitting on their hands’.
She said, “The current building which will be 75 years next year, is not fit for purpose. We have 33 staff using one bathroom, 219 pupils using two pupil bathrooms, children taught in store rooms, windowless spaces, one room is divided into four so there’s four different classes going on at the one time, only eight parking spaces making arrival and home times absolute chaos and no green space for the children to go and play outside.
“We have no more room for expansion through modular classrooms and the problem is only getting worse. Simply put, we need a new school and we need it now.”
Parent, Wendy Carr speaking to RTE at the protest for a new school at Scoil Mhure in Milford yesterday morning.
Built in 1950, Scoil Mhuire has served pupils in the town and beyond. The drive for a new school building has been going on for a number of years.
The Board of Management has been negotiating with the Department for Education for some time and school representatives met with Minister Charlie McConalogue last month to accelerate plans for a new school building to be included in the Capital Plan for the life of the current Dail, something which is looking increasingly unlikely with a general election set to be announced today or tomorrow.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has also been to Scoil Mhuire and has seen first-hand the current conditions.
Mrs McLarnon continued, “A local businessman generously gifted us a site in February this year which would be absolutely perfect but, because the department has not signed off on it or even so much as sent out inspectors to look at it, nothing can be done. It seems that this will drag on again for yet another year as the department haven’t done their job on the site needed for us to proceed.
“We realise a general election is coming but, the land is there so what’s keeping anyone from assuring us that it a new school will be included in the Capital Plan of the next Dail? The children don’t deserve to be left in conditions such as this.”
Cameras from national broadcaster RTE were in attendance at yesterday’s protest and Mrs McLarnon said that she hoped the issue would now be brought to national attention.
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