Council calls on Dept to address schools issue

THE need for a new approach to be adopted in providing infrastructure and for a definitive plan to be put in place for the future of primary education in Navan was stressed by Fine Gael Cllr Maria Murphy in a debate on the schools issue at a meeting of Meath County Council last week. The councillor was speaking on a motion put forward by Labour Cllr Jenny McHugh on behalf of the Navan and Johnstown Schools Development Group calling on the county council to demand from the Department of Education and Science to review the schools provision in Navan and Johnstown and fulfil its commitments "to the existing schools first before considering any proposed new primary school". Cllr McHugh said there were 2,100 children in temporary school accommodation in the town. Cllr Murphy said that she would support the motion asking for the fulfilment of commitments but described as "dangerous" the section of the motion asking that no new primary schools be opened until the commitments were carried out. She "fully supported" the new Ard Rí community national school under Meath VEC patronage. The Department was responding to the needs of the community and this should be welcomed. "I fully support a choice of education for parents as stated in the Education Act 1998. We have also said that Meath, and indeed Navan, is open for business. We are trying to attract foreign investment and the new school will support that aim, as one of the main criteria for families relocating is the availability of suitable schools." Cllr McHugh's motion is asking that the department review its commitments before considering any proposed new primary school, she said. "If this was the policy of the department to date, we would have no Gaelscoil or St Peter's Church of Ireland School in Dunboyne, we would have no St Paul's in Ratoath, we would have no Educate Together school in Navan, and more. Schools can exist together," she stated. Cllr Murphy proposed an amended motion, which was accepted by the councillors, "that Meath Co Council supports the new Ard Ri Community National School which is being patroned by the VEC and demands that the Department puts a definitive plan in place to address the infrastructure needs of the schools in Navan and Johnstown, with particular regards to commitments already given to those schools." Cllr Eugene Cassidy said that if the new community national school was not built in Navan, it would be built elsewhere, perhaps Galway or Tralee. "We should put our hands out and accept it. That does not affect the funding for the existing schools in Navan. That is a different thing altogether." Cllr John Farrelly said he had heard on a radio programme that a person had put a proposal to the Department to build 100 national schools in the country, and he had people to build them at half the wages they once got. But the answer from the Department was that they did not have the sites and could not put them together. It was a pity that a few cobwebs could not be shaken from the Department. He fully agreed with Cllrs Murphy and Cassidy that the community national school should be built. Cllr Jim Holloway called for the community national school to go ahead. But this should not compromise the ability of the government to fund the older schools in Navan. He called on the department to put together a proper plan for school provision in the town. "They should prioritise this. There are prefabs and campaigns and so on. Why the heck is it always like this?"