The Department of Education will hold a meeting with Galway city primary school principals regarding the need for a new primary school in the Knocknacarra area.
The meeting has been arranged by Labour Galway West TD Derek Nolan and a date will be set in the coming weeks.
The department has sanctioned funding for the provision of a new primary school on the west of the city citing the projected rise in the area’s population as the reason. The upcoming meeting will determine whether the data the department is using matches with what school principals are seeing on the ground.
“There is some concern that the school may not be necessary,” said Dep Nolan. “I hope the meeting will bring all the facts into the open and determine once and for all whether a new school is necessary.”
Dep Nolan said a number of schools around the city are in need of upgrading.
“With so many school building projects necessary in Galway,” he said, “it would make no sense to build a new school where existing schools are well placed to take on the extra numbers.”
Dep Nolan has also raised the exclusion of Gael Scoil Mhic Amhlaigh in Knocknacarra and Clifden Community School from the five-year school building programme with Education Minster Ruairi Quinn.
“I was very disappointed to see the exclusion of these projects,” he said. “I know these schools have been planning and preparing to start these projects for some time now and the works are badly needed.”
Dep Nolan has pledged to follow up with the minister and his officials to see what options are possible to advance the projects.
