Trim Educate Together school building
Deputy Guirke said Trim Educate Together NS has been stuck in temporary accommodation for years despite rapid enrolment growth and safety concerns. The Tánaiste said delays often arise in school planning, would check the current status, and promised to come back to the Deputy.
I raise the serious issue regarding Trim Educate Together National School in County Meath. The school opened in 2014 with 17 junior infant pupils. It initially operated from temporary accommodation in 2018.
It moved to another temporary building in Trim. Since 2021 enrolment has surged from 138 to a projected 201 pupils this September. They will have eight mainstream classes for the first time. A recent health and safety report by Cohort has highlighted urgent concerns about the inadequacy of the current building. The temporary buildings are simply not fit for educational purposes. A decade since its establishment, the school is still operating from a temporary facility. This has led to overcrowded classrooms, insufficient storage areas, inadequate bathroom facilities and a lack of space for assemblies and extracurricular activities. The school serves a large catchment area in Meath West, including Summerhill, Ballivor, Longwood, Rathmolyon and Kildalkey. Will the Tánaiste or the Minister for Education provide a timeline for addressing the urgent safety concerns and for securing a permanent educational home for Trim Educate Together National School and definite deadlines in this regard?
Comment on this
Some of these issues are when schools are initially started. No school, in my view, should be ten years waiting but it tends to happen if the agreed planning processes are not applied in terms of recognition of a school's identity and so on. We have been through all that. I presume the school has a school building scheme on the way or a design at various stages. I have talked to the Minister as to where it is. The Deputy must know himself.