Parents seek to reverse plan for Wicklow Gaelscoil

Parents are petitioning to reverse the latest plan for a new Gaelscoil in Wicklow, in a long-running saga that began with the purchase of a now-defunct site for more than €570,000. The Department of Education bought 1.7 acres in 2002 from the Dominican order at Crinion Park, on the outskirts of Wicklow town, to build a school for Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin. Outline planning permission had been obtained for an eight-classroom school there before the purchase.

In 2005, the department reversed its decision, stating the Crinion Park site was too small for what would now need to be a 16-classroom school. The site remains vacant. Also in 2005, the school, which was established in 1996, was moved into prefabs at a site leased by the Department of Education, at Merrymeeting, Rathnew, near Wicklow town.

Since then, the now 14-teacher school has been temporarily relocated again, to Abbey Community College in Wicklow Town. Planning permission to build a permanent school on the Merrymeeting site was approved by An Bord Pleanála last August. The site will be shared with another new school, promised for Rathnew. The land set aside for the Gaelscoil is 1.2 acres, half an acre smaller than the Crinion Park site.

The current school management support the plan, but parents of children attending the school have said the development is on an unsuitable site.

A spokesman for Parents GS Wicklow highlighted the Department of Education’s own guidelines, which stipulate a 16-classroom site should have three acres of land. He said there would not be enough space on the site for the children to play or for bicycle parking, a requirement of planning permission. He added that a recently built Educate Together school had been given a four-acre site.

The spokesman also said the majority of parents at the school had signed a petition against the Merrymeeting site and, in total, there were almost 1,000 signatures, including local residents concerned about traffic implications. The Department of Education had already spent more than €250,000 upgrading the Abbey, he added, and, with less investment than the cost of a new build, could bring the former community school up to standard.

In a statement to The Irish Times, the board of management said the school had been waiting 20 years for a permanent home. It had met anfor more than €570,000communicated with parents to discuss concerns, including last month at a "very productive" meeting. "The board of management will continue to work with the school community as we look forward to our new school," the statement said.

The Department of Education said the proposal on the Crinion Park site did not proceed because a 16-classroom building was required. It also said the planning process had included a public consultation and that the school’s board of management and patron, An Foras Pátrúnachta, were behind the plan.

It added that the Abbey was owned by Kildare Wicklow Education Training Board and would be used by the board for educational purposes once the Gaelscoil moves out. “The site at Crinion Park remains in the department’s ownership and there are no current plans for development at this location,” the statement said.