The Department of Education must intervene to allow students and teachers from Coláiste Ráithín in Bray to move into their new school building which has been delayed by the Carillion collapse, Social Democrats’ councillor Jennifer Whitmore said today.
Local Cllr Whitmore said:
“I attended a meeting last night at which teachers, parents and students from Coláiste Ráithín expressed their deep and growing frustration and anger over the legal issues surrounding the collapse of the construction firm which means they can’t get the keys to their new school building.
“I understand that the situation is complicated but surely it can’t be beyond the Department of Education to put in interim measures so that teachers and students can get access to the new building while talks about its future maintenance continue.
“The new building is complete and it would appear that all it needs now are for the fire safety certificates to be signed off. The conditions in the existing school buildings are intolerable, with no gym for physical education, no cooking facilities for domestic science and a worrying rodent problem.
“Parents, pupils and teachers have been looking for this new school for 23 years. They have been promised and promised and they sincerely believed that they were now coming to the end of that journey only to be told, now that the school is complete, that they can’t move into it.”
Councillor Whitmore said the situation in the Bray school highlights wider concerns about the reliance by the Department of Education on Public Private Partnerships for the delivery of vital projects.
She added:
“The Department needs to look at its model of PPPs and how it contracts with private companies. It also needs to explain what financial state Carillion was in when it was awarded contracts for school builds.”
ENDS
30 January 2018