More than 200 parents of four- and five-year-olds due to start school in Laytown, Co Meath, later this month have said they do not want the children being taught in temporary classrooms at a racecourse nine miles away. The Department of Education has offered to provide school buses to transport them.
At a meeting this week the principal and board of management of Scoil Oilibheir Naofa, on the grounds of Laytown National School, were chastised by the parents for failing to address the accommodation issue before now. Politicians in attendance at the meeting were also criticised by the parents.
"The losers here are the children. In the last 10 years the population in this area has trebled but the only winners are the builders and developers. Not one new school has been built here since 1979," said AJ Cahill who threatened to take his child out of the school.
Principal Mary Carpenter said that when the school opened last year, in temporary cabins in the grounds of Laytown National School: "We didn't have enough accommodation. Now we need more accommodation because of the demand for places."
The school has been granted permission by Meath County Council to convert two single-storey additional Portakabins to two-storey giving sufficient accommodation for the current school year subject to there not being an appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
At the meeting, Mgr John Hanley appealed to objectors to the original application not to appeal the permission to An Bord Pleanála. He said until they can be built, the only acceptable alternative accommodation off-site is at the racecourse. "The department's officials have no problem with it because two other schools have used it in the last two years," he said.
But most of the parents were united in condemning it as an option and some said they would rather take their children out of school. The issue of a new permanent school led to loud verbal exchanges and opposing opinions between Mgr Hanley and local Cllr Tom Kelly.
The lands were part of a large parcel of land sold earlier this year for over €27 million. However, they are still zoned as an educational campus on the recently adopted new local area plan.
A further meeting is to be held next week to try and resolve the accommodation issue.