'Democracy turned on its head' by school site delay

Delays by the Department of Education in deciding where Eureka Secondary School, Kells, should site its new building were described as 'an attempt to turn democracy on its head' this week by local town councillor, Tommy Grimes. The Labour town councillor spoke out after Education Minister Batt O"Keeffe told Labour Party deputy Ruairí Quinn in the Dáil that his Department was examining the issue of the Navan Road site and 'would revert to the local authority with its views on same'. The minister"s comments came nearly a fortnight after Kells area manager Brendan McGrath told the town council of his exasperation over the lengthy wait in seeking a response from the Department of Education"s building section in Tullamore, concerning the proposed Kells site. Cllr Grimes stressed both the majorities of the Kells area and town councils had supported the full county council in its adoption of the Kells Development Plan, in wishing to retain all the town"s schools at the Navan Road campus. Planners also had pointed to the likely traffic headaches that would be created if the new Eureka facility was moved to the "Brothers" Field" on the Cavan Road. Cllr Grimes said he was struck that the two submissions favouring this in the Local Area Plan were 'word for word'. The push for the Cavan Road site was clearly coming from sectors within Fianna Fail, he claimed. Neither he nor his Labour colleague, Cllr Brian Collins, had been contacted by the parents" council, teachers" unions or the board of management on the issue, he added, and those parents he had spoken to all favoured the Navan Road site. He said he had no objection to the Cavan Road selection if it speeded up the planning process but 'people have to get off the fence'. Kells Labour Party branch plans to send a deputation to Leinster House to meet Deputy Quinn at the end of this month if no further development on the contentious site has taken place. 'Not just us, but Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and independents are being kept in the dark,' Cllr Grimes added.