Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The people of Kells fully support the proposal to build a new secondary school. The issue is the location of the school. There are two sites, one on the Cavan Road at the north end of the town and one on the Navan Road at the south end of the town. The Kells development plan has zoned both sites for the purposes of building a new school. The important thing for us is that the right site is chosen. We have already spoken about this to the Minister for Education and Skills. I have visited both sites and walked up and down the fields as they are now. I share the concerns of many residents of the town. The Navan Road site is much closer to the new housing developments where the children are growing up. That site would enable them to walk and cycle to school in safety. It would also make it easier for parents to drop their children to school. It is closer to the existing school campuses where, as my colleague outlined, there is a swimming pool and sports pitches. There is in effect a campus there waiting for this new school.

I have spoken to many Kells residents about the school. They are perplexed and wonder why the Department would consider putting a school on the Cavan Road at the north end of town. People do not understand it. They are not particularly happy about it. When we spoke about this in the past the Minister told me that he needed to see some sort of consensus on behalf of the town councillors. We went to the town councillors and across the parties they have put forward a motion asking the Department to put the site on the Navan Road site as opposed to the Cavan Road site. I think a copy of that motion was sent to the Minister.

I understand that there were some land-locking issues but they have been resolved because the landowners will give permission for any access road to be built. Today we want the Minister to give a commitment that a review will be carried out of the merits of both sites. We do not want to see favouritism towards any particular site. We are simply concerned that we get the best site and we believe that is the Navan Road site.

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