www.communityvoice.ie - All the top news stories from Dublin 15

Castleknock Sports hall shelved again by Government

The long running saga of a school gym for Castleknock Community College looks set to run for a bit longer following a Government decision to long-finger the project once again, Community Voice has learned.

The college which is one of the largest second level schools in Ireland originally received written permission for a sports hall in August 2000. The commitment for the new hall was given at that time by the Department of Education, following the completion of a major extension to the school to facilitate the intake of additional pupils.

Following the appointment of architects to design the new sports hall, there was a slight downturn in the national economy as a result of which the then Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, issued an instruction that priority was to be given to the construction of classrooms instead of sports halls and other such ancillary facilities.

In May 2006, following major agitation from local parents, Minister Mary Hanafin issued a letter to her party colleague Brian Lenihan TD confirming that she had authorised the provision of a 800m2 PE hall for the school. In her letter she said she had authorised the hall “to progress through architectural planning and on to tender and construction as soon as all stages of the planning process are complete.”

According to the Minister, “this project is being progressed as part of the School Building and Modernisation Programme 2006 – 2010 and its delivery will ensure that state of the art PE facilities are available to the pupils of the school.”

Community Voice has learned that the VEC, which manages the school, had expected to “sign off” on the project at a meeting with the Department of Education last November. At that meeting the department asked for a few slight amendments to be made to the plans. It is understood that these amendments related to some issues around the cost of CCTV cameras included in the project. The amended plans were re-submitted to the department in January and school authorities had expected to be applying for planning permission this month.

Speaking to Community Voice, college principal Tom O’Brien said “I was expecting approval to go to the planning stage in February but no official confirmation has yet been received so we are very concerned.”

In recent weeks, following the publication of the latest government exchequer receipts, it appears that the school was unofficially informed that the project would now be put back as “there are greater priorities in the country.”

What makes the decision more upsetting, for parents and teachers alike, is the fact that the school had agreed to increase its intake of pupils for the coming year from 180 to 210. This agreement was given in light of the fact that the new hall and an additional eight classrooms were due to be built this year. Now, as one school source described it, “the school is committed to taking the additional pupils while the department is reneging on its part of the bargain.”

Local Labour Party TD Joan Burton has castigated the Government about this second u-turn on the Castleknock sports hall. Speaking to Community Voice she said “it seems now that the Government is running into financial difficulties, the project for the gym in Castleknock is being downgraded by the Minister for Education from urgent status to a much more indefinite time-frame.

“In all the elections of recent years, whether local or national, the gym has been a standard Fianna Fáil promise. It is cynical beyond belief that they would once again walk away from the solemn commitment that they made to the community in Castleknock to actually build and develop a gym,” she said.

Community Voice, Media House, Church Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
Phone +353 1 822 1432 - Fax +353 1 640 4444
info@communityvoice.ie