The contract for a new Co Mayo school, which was given the go-ahead exactly seven years ago yesterday, has just been put out to tender.
The revelation follows Opposition criticism that information about school projects is being selectively leaked in constituencies where Fianna Fáil is hoping to make gains in the election.
Ms Gina Gielty, a member of the parents association of St Anthony's school for children with special needs in Castlebar, was told by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last week to expect "great news" in the next few days in relation to a new school.
Parents were protesting because of conditions in the 37-year-old pre-fab building.
Ms Gielty believes the announcement is being made because of the upcoming general election and recent protests staged by parents, including one during the Taoiseach's visit to the county last week.
"It took us ages to find out where he [Mr Ahern] was going to be on the morning and we eventually found out. I met him for a few seconds and he said 'Good morning, I'm delighted to tell you there is great news to come in the form of a letter'," she explained.
Mr Ahern was interviewed on the Pat Kenny radio show yesterday morning. Ms Gielty, whose 17-year-old daughter Rachel attends the school, rang in to ask when exactly the good news was going to imparted.
Mr Ahern said that just before speaking to Ms Gielty, his "colleagues" had told him that the school had got approval and was "on the list".
In response, Ms Gielty told him it had got approval exactly seven years ago yesterday when the Rainbow Government was in power, but they were still waiting.
"This one sounds like it is on the tender list and ready to go," responded Mr Ahern.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said yesterday that the contract for the school had gone out to tender in the last few weeks.
Ms Gielty told The Irish Times that her daughter who is Down's Syndrome, attends the school with 50 other pupils. She said the pre-fab structure was in very poor condition and in one spot the wall was so weak if a child fell against it "they could end up on the outside".
The window frames, she said, were rotten.
"We had another protest planned and I'd say because the general election is happening it all came to a head."
Labour's spokeswoman on education, Ms Róisín Shortall, said the way in which the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, were handling the announcement of school building projects was "obscene and deserves to be penalised heavily on polling day".
Mr Ahern, she said, had promised to publish the full list of schools currently awaiting renovation and upgrading on April 24th, the last day the Dail sat.
Dr Woods had been promising for months to publish the full list of 850 applications from schools for work under the school building programme but only released a "selective" list of 496, which was being used for electioneering purposes, Ms Shortall claimed.