Minister meets Nobber school delegation about extension

The Minister for Education, Batt O'Keefe, met with a delegation from O'Carolan College, Nobber, last week to discuss the proposed extension to the school. The delegation outlined the need for the extension for the rapidly-growing school. O'Carolan College currently has just under 500 students and is due to grow by a further 50 to 100 students over the next two to three years. It is currently housed in a 2,000sq metre building and has been provisionally granted permission by the Department of Education to provide a further 3,000sq m extension to the school. Under normal circumstances, this project would be in progress already but due to the current economic climate it has been delayed. The delegation was facilitated by Deputy Thomas Byrne and among the delegation were members of the board of management of the school, Cllrs Bryan Reilly and Tommy Grimes and VEC mnember, Seamus Grimes. The parents were represented by Mary Meade and Kathleen Murray, accompanied by the CEO of County Meath VEC, Peter Kierans, TD Shane McEntee and school principal, Brian Goggins. The minister was shown the huge growth in the numbers of students in the school in the last five years and projections for the next five years were looked at in great detail. It was obvious to all present that this is a school that will need to be extended in the very near future. The minister gave a commitment to ask his officials to examine all the data provided and, following the allocation of his department's capital budget for the next 12 months, to examine this project. The Department's Building and Planning Unit have already drawn up the schedule of accommodation for the school. It will provide a 600sq m sports hall, extra science labs, construction rooms, home economics, multimedia and IT rooms. Mr Goggins said he was delighted with the outcome of the meeting and was confident that the minister will have some good news for Nobber and north County Meath before the end of the year.