Additional school places to cope with demand in Dunshaughlin

News that a second junior infants class has been sanctioned for Dunshaughlin Community National School has come as a big relief to parents of more than 20 children who were left without a school place for this coming September.

The Meath Chronicle recently highlighted the primary school crisis in the growing town where the number of children seeking places in the three local primary schools was well in excess of places available, creating huge uncertainty and worry for those parents.

The Department of Education has now responded to the crisis by putting on additional school places to cope with the demand, sanctioning a second class for Dunshaughlin CNS. The school is currently located in prefabs in the grounds of Dunshaughlin and Royal Gaels GAA club, pending delivery of its permanent building on the Dunshaughlin Education Campus on the Dublin Road. An additional prefab will now be required for Dunshaughin CNS for September, meaning space will become even tighter.

Minister for Education, Helen McEntee has thanked Dunshaughlin CNS principal Yvonne Slevin and her team for facilitating the extra class and having visited the school has acknowledged that it is quite a confined area and that with more accommodation to come on site, she said everyone will be pulling together to make it work.

“This is why the new building is so important and we want to move forward with it as soon as possible,” said Minister McEntee. She confirmed that the tender had been issued on 12th December and the closing date passed on 26th February with the tenders currently being assessed.

Local councillor Gerry O'Connor who is chair of the board of management of Dunshaughlin CNS has welcomed the new class and said it comes as a big relief to the parents who had not secured places for their child. He said all those on the waiting list for the school have been written to and offered places. However, he says they must keep putting pressure on the Department of Education to move forward with construction of the permanent school building as soon as possible.

He says he can already foresee that an extension to the planned eight-classroom school will be required to cope with demand for places going forward as more families, including those already with school going age children, continue to move into the area. While the last census put the population of Dunshaughlin at 6,800, Cllr O'Connor said the population is now heading towards 11,000 with all the new developments coming on stream.

Regarding the need for more school places, Cllr O'Connor said he had engaged with LMETB and the Department of Education and providing updated housing projections and population projections to the Department to include all developments currently under construction and on the way to demonstrate the need for the additional places.

He also pointed out that when the projections were done by the Department in 2019 to sanction the school, it excluded the Willows Strategic Housing Development which has 900 units alone and also didn't include the Grange End SHD with 260 houses.

“It is heartbreaking for me to see kids that I coached when they were eight or nine years of age now with kids of their own and unable to get school places for them. In Dunshaughlin it is not just young couples buying houses, then having a baby a year later and looking for school places in four or five years time. Whole families are moving out with children already at school so this is hitting every class. It is a different housing situation so we have to react to it.

“We need that school open for September 2026 and we will fill it. The children have a limited play area where they are but Dunshaughlin and Royal Gaels have been very good to the school making the astroturf available and the clubhouse if needed. It is not ideal though.”

When the new school is built beside the Willows Development, it means the many children living there would be able to walk to school which would greatly ease traffic congestion at school times. Because the temporary site is at the opposite end of the village, it means families living in the Willows whose children attend Dunshaughlinc CNS have to drive their children to school adding to the traffic congestion in the village.

Chair of LMETB Nick Killian also welcomed the additional school places but says pressure now needs to be put on to deliver the permanent school building as soon as possible.

“It is a tight site but we are very grateful to Dunshaughlin and Royal Gaels for their co-operation and help since Dunshaughlin CNS opened. There will be another classroom provided that will take the children who were without a place.

“It is not an LMETB project. The Department of Education is responsible for the building project and they don't move very fast. I know we are just one school on the list but there is a crisis with school place provision and we are hoping diggers will go on site later this year.

“We will be putting pressure on Education Minister Helen McEntee to ensure she delivers this building at the earliest opportunity.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “The school building project for Dunshaughlin Community National School is part of the Department's construction programme and will be delivered as part of a campus project with Coláiste Rioga. The campus project will provide a new eight classroom primary school and accommodation, including two classrooms for children with special educational needs and a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school and accommodation, including for classrooms, for children with special educational needs.

“The project currently has planning permission and has been brought to the level of employer-led design with a Design Team assigned to do so under the supervision of the Department’s project manager.

“The process of appointing the Design Team from the Department’s Frameworks of Consultants was completed in September 2023 and the project proceeded to tender on 12th December 2024. The tender period closed on the 26th February and these tenders are now being assessed in line with procurement guidelines.

“The Department will continue to provide updates in relation to the project and interim accommodation for the school pending delivery of the permanent project.”