Buttevant Needs a New Secondary School

Posted on December 19, 2007 at 05:01 PM

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me this opportunity

to raise this matter on the adjournment.

I wish to speak about the urgent need for the Minister for

Education and Science to address the serious delay in granting

St. Mary's Community School, Buttevant, County Cork,

permission to build a new school to provide for an increase in

student population.

This issue was raised in April of this year by my predecessor.

The staff and pupils and people of Buttevant have been waiting

over 10 years for this project to be expedited.

I now call on the Minister to tell the people of Buttevant when

she intends to notify the County Cork Vocational Education

Committee of her approval for the new school.

The people have been waiting since 1997.

As a former member of Cork County Council I was instrumental

in ensuring that lands in Buttevant would be rezoned for the sole

purpose of providing a school. That was over two years ago.

We are becoming increasingly disillusioned and frustrated by

the lack of progress on this matter.

We are tired of hearing that this will be considered in the

context of the Department's multi-annual school building and

modernisation programme.

The population of North Cork is growing. For many years the

failure to provide new school buildings and school places has

been a major issue for Buttevant and the surrounding area.

St. Mary's community college is the only post-primary school in

Buttevant and is a co-educational provider with a current

enrolment of over 186 mainstream pupils.

County Cork VEC applied to the school planning section of the

Department of Education and Science for funding towards the

provision of a new school building on a greenfield site for St.

Mary's community college.

The proposed new school building was to cater for a long-term

projected enrolment of 325 pupils and the project reached an

early stage of architectural planning in 2001.

The site acquisition is finalised. We have played our part.

The Minister must act now for the people of Buttevant.

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