Tanaiste visits Navan primary school that's been in temporary accommodation for 14 years
Tanaiste Micheal Martin was a special guest at Ard Ri CNS in Navan today where he congratulated the 360-pupil school's football team on their recent Cumann na mBunscol victory - the first in the school's history.
He was also told by principal Darragh Roe, that if returned to Government, he needs to "prioritse the delivery of state of the art school buildings to back up the excellent teaching and learning that is taking place in our schools."
Mr Martin was supporting Cllr Aisling Dempsey during a visit to the Meath West constituency where he said he hoped she would claim one of the three seats up for grabs at next Friday's general election.
The Tanaiste described Ard Ri CNS as a relativelty new concept in terms of patronge under the ETB going back to 2007, at a time, he said when Mary Hannafin was Minister for Education, and said it "was the way forward for community national schools".
The tanaiste along with his embedded press pack and Cllr Dempsey enjoyed a tour of the school, laid out in modern prefab accommdation and met pupils busy at their school work.
'We were delighted to welcome the Tánaiste and local candidate Aisling Dempsey to the school this morning, said Principal Darragh Roe.
"We had a great chat about Hot School Meals, Free School Books and the Primary Maths Curriculum.
"I explained to the Tánaiste that as a school we have been in temporary accommodation at Balreask Old since 2010. In that time we have seen our school grow from just 7 pupils to now 360 pupils learning across 15 classrooms.
"It is past time for us to be in a new permanent building. We have a site and a design, our school is in the planning stage and I challenged the Tánaiste to return for the official opening in 2027.
"The next government need to prioritse the delivery of state of the art school buildings to back up the excellent teaching and learning that is taking place in our schools."
Responding the Tanaiste said: "Absolutely it is very challenging, the good news here is that the (green light to build) sanction is there but obviously it has to go through the county council for planning but that will happen and hopefully we can break ground on this particular site in 2025 and build a modern state-of-the-art school.
"950 projects have been completed over the last number of years. It's been that largest era of school building for a long time but of course in counties like Meath and the commuter belt, the population is growing and therefore we really have to work flat out to get schools built and children attending them."