Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

Will the Minister for Education and Science immediately earmark a three-acre site on the Tipperary institute campus on the Frank Drohan Road in Clonmel, which has been identified as the preferred option by the Office of Public Works for the gaelscoil site?

Parents, teachers and pupils in Gaelscoil Chluain Meala are frustrated with the long delay in identifying a site for a new school. The school was founded on a temporary basis in 1994 and received permanent recognition in 1995. When it began, there were approximately 41 pupils and there are now approximately 240 pupils. At the time, South Tipperary County Council made available the old engineering offices, as we called them, in Irishtown, Clonmel.

While everyone was happy to have the building, it was provided on the basis that it was a temporary arrangement for a small school. The building was founded as a school in 1830 but has seen various uses since, including the county engineering offices for south County Tipperary. No one considered the gaelscoil would still be there 12 years later with no site in view. It is an historic building, but it does not conform with the needs of Gaelscoil Chluain Meala.

The parents, teachers, pupils and community are urging the Minister to earmark a site, as they believe the quest for a site has gone on for too long. The building is old, inadequate and dangerous. A recently completed whole-school evaluation states: "Moladh don bhoird dul i dteagmháil leis an Roinn láithreach maidir le cabhair a lorg chun an leath den díon nár deisíodh sa bhliain 2001 a dheisiú anois".

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