The prospective closure of a Churchtown girls' school is the hot generalelection issue in Dublin South. Emmet Oliver reports
The future of the Notre Dame Des Missions girls' school in the Dublin suburb of Churchtown is set to become a hot general election issue in the Dublin South constituency.
All the TDs in the constituency are involved in the campaign and have said they are determined to keep the school open.
Meetings are due to take place this week between Department of Education officials, public representatives and the order which owns the school, Our Lady of the Mission.
The order wants to sell the 10-acre site, which is a stone's throw from the new LUAS line. However, furious parent reaction, led by enterainer Adele King (Twink), has forced the nuns to step back a little. They now say they will consider other plans, especially any suggestions from the Department of Education.
The Minister, Dr Woods, has set up a working group to study the options and it is due to meet this week. A meeting scheduled for last Friday failed to take place because a senior official was not available.
The school and surrounding land could fetch millions of euro on the property market. Not only is it beside the LUAS line, it is also near Dundrum shopping centre and surrounded by mature residential areas.
The order claims it needs to release funds from the sale to pay for projects it has undertaken in the developing world. However, this explanation did not pacify parents at a public meeting last week.
A number of compromise proposals are expected to emerge over the next few weeks. One is for the Department of Education to either lease or buy the land from the order. A lay board of trustees would then take over the running of the school.
However, any lease arrangement or purchase is likely to be highly expensive for the Department and they may find it hard to justify such a large outlay in the current economic climate. Yet with so many local representatives applying pressure, a compromise of some kind is still the most likely outcome.
