Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has been criticised for abandoning attempts to save a secondary school in the expanding south Galway area from closure.
Parents and supporters of the "Save Seamount College" campaign have accused the Minister of ignoring representations by her own party - including by Fianna Fáil junior Ministers Frank Fahey and Noel Treacy in the Galway West and East constituencies - to keep the school open.
Ms Hanafin indicated last week that phased closure of the Sisters of Mercy girls secondary school appeared to be a fait accompli, when she appointed a single manager to take over the functions of the board of management.
Her department also said it would change the catchment area to facilitate student enrolment in Gort Community School, which already has more than 700 pupils.
The department said the Seamount College trustees had confirmed directly the current site would not be available for the provision of post-primary education once the college closed.
The college is located on valuable waterfront property overlooking Kinvara harbour. No new pupils will be accepted this September and all junior cycle students are being given the option to proceed to senior cycle.
Criticism of the Minister's approach was voiced at a public meeting in Kinvara last Friday night attended by more than 500 people, including politicians and a representative of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI).
The Save Seamount College campaign estimates the closure and loss of 300 school places will result in an educational "crisis" in south Galway, given a 7 per cent population growth over the past five years. It also questions how closure would fit in with the Government's spatial strategy to develop the Atlantic corridor. The nearest alternatives in Gort and Oranmore are at or near capacity, each with more than 700 pupils.
"If the Minister's policy is to encourage factory schools of 1,000 pupils and more, she should state this, but this is not our idea of education," said Jane Joyce, spokeswoman for the campaign.
"Children are not units, and catchment areas are not products, and we don't believe anyone in Ireland wants this type of educational approach," she said. The campaign believed the school could be turned into a co-educational structure, run by the State.
Otherwise, the campaign will be making it an issue in the forthcoming general election, she said. Fine Gael has promised to make the school a priority.
The Mercy Order has said the decision to close Seamount College is "based on the fact that sufficient funding to provide appropriate facilities and a suitable wide-ranging curriculum will not be available into the future".
The outgoing board of management has disputed this, pointing out there had been significant fundraising and a very generous response from past pupils.
Last year, school property owned by a religious order in Taylor's Hill, Galway, was sold for €6.3 million at auction.
