Parents of 100 children due to start in junior infants class in Laytown, Co Meath, have been offered temporary classrooms within the grounds used by the Department of Justice in Mosney.
However, the proposal by the Scoil Oilibhéir Naofa board of management to send four- and five-year-old children on buses to Mosney has been rejected by most parents on safety grounds.
The Mosney centre, which is the former Butlins holiday camp, is now the Republic's largest accommodation centre for asylum seekers under the Department of Justice and the Reception and Integration Agency.
The offer of temporary accommodation in Mosney follows the failure to secure extra Portakabins on the grounds of Scoil Oilibhéir Naofa for the 100 junior infants due to start next week. Alternatively, parents may be offered the chance to send children to school in the existing buildings for three hours in the morning, afternoon or evening.
Two new Portakabins which were due to provide for the new pupils have been delayed due to planning applications and a dispute over the ownership of the proposed site. In an effort to provide a temporary solution to the problem, the Department of Education had previously offered to provide school buses to a racecourse nine miles from Laytown.
Fine Gael's Shane McEntee said last night he would be appealing to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to issue compulsory purchase orders to the landowners. He described as "unacceptable" the proposals offered by the department to date.
"The option of young children going on a bus to Mosney which is four or five miles away is not a runner. It's a disgrace," he said.
A department spokeswoman said the school's patron and management board were exploring a number of options in an effort to ensure that all children would be accommodated by the start of term. The teachers' union INTO is also monitoring the situation.