Munster Express Online

Jamie O’Keeffe

The Principal of a Tramore primary school has accused the Department of Education and successive ministers of sitting on their hands whilst generations of pupils are consigned to a “prefab township.”

Daithí de Paor, head of Gaelscoil Philib Barún, says the way his school, and others locally, have been treated is “an ongoing scandal”.

The school has been operating out of temporary accommodation for the past 23 years. Tramore’s three ‘primaries’ – the others being the Holy Cross and Glor na Mara – are all still waiting for work to begin on long-awaited building projects.

Given serious overcrowding and a huge demand for places, the crisis has been highlighted ad nauseam at local council level and in the Dáil.

“Speaking for my own school, we’re being totally ignored,” Mr de Paor says. “1982 was the last time a permanent primary school structure was built in Tramore – not a single block has been laid in that time, while we’ve watched schools all around in the city and county get new projects, and good luck to them.”

He compares Tramore’s treatment with schools closer to the corridors of power, who’ve been granted new buildings within a few years of being established. “Some schools have had spectacular success in getting funding for major building projects. A school in North Dublin has had two major projects built since 2001. One school founded in 2007 moved into its new building in 2008!”

In stark contrast, “We’re nearly a quarter-of-a-century old at this stage and yet we’re left in prefabs. I’ve written to the Department countless times but there must be a bin in the Department where all Tramore school letters are put.”

Mr de Paor was outlined his grievances in a strongly-worded letter sent to Waterford’s TDs and Senators this week. In it he says how Education Minister Batt O Keeffe recently announced 25 major new school buildings projects to be undertaken in 2009. But “the electorate of Tramore should note that once again there will be no new schools built in one of the fastest growing towns in the country.”

‘Deliberately frustrated’

With “a large proportion of Tramore’s school-going population is accommodated in temporary prefabricated buildings, all schools, primary and secondary, currently have applications with the Department of Education and Science for new school buildings. These have all progressed to varying stages but significantly not one permanent classroom has been built since 1982. In that period the population has grown from 5,600 to over 9,000.”

Príomhoide de Paor makes the point that Tramore town is supposedly given the highest priority rating by the Department’s ‘Rapidly Developing Area Unit’. “Since the school moved to its current site at Crobally Upper in 2003 it has doubled in size with a school population of 200 pupils. Despite this, its application for a permanent building has been ignored and small inadequate prefabs are being rented at great expense while an application for a permanent building gathers dust.”

The way he sees it, the Gaelscoil’s board of management “has been deliberately frustrated in its attempts to negotiate the bureaucratic maze that is the primary school building programme. Unless there is political will to force through our applications no building will follow.” (The appointment of design team to draw up plans is still awaited.)

“Primary schools in Waterford city,” he observed, “have seen major upgrades and indeed new buildings (Ballygunner, Gaelscoil Éanna, Scoil Lorcán). Small schools outside the city using relatively small devolved grants have upgraded their accommodation (Fenor, Dunhill, Butlerstown). Tramore in contrast is a prefab’ township.”

Because schools in Tramore have accommodated the influx of extra children caused by the area’s population growth, “thus avoiding a headline grabbing enrolment crisis as happened in North Dublin,” he believes the Department “has been able to sideline our appeals for permanent buildings and throw prefabs at the problem.”

While seeking commitments for parents and school authorities on a timeframe for the building programme at every school in the town, in Mr de Paor’s view, Gaelscoil Philib Barún’s building programme – which envisages a landmark building overlooking Tramore Bay – “should have the highest priority rating. Our school community has done its time in accommodation purgatory. We have ensured that our temporary facilities are safe, clean and healthy. We cannot provide a leaking roof or a rat eaten floorboard to strengthen our case. Our due diligence in these matters is working against us.”

“The people of Tramore,” he stressed, “should be aware that this [prefab limbo] will continue indefinitely while the community accepts this. Efforts by public representatives to address this issue must be redoubled… Tramore must not be forgotten,” he asserts.