A proposal to create another new primary school in Portlaoise to meet urgent demands, has been rejected by the Department of Education, at least for several more years.
Instead prefab classrooms are to again become a norm for the town’s schoolchildren.
Portlaoise’s rapid growth has meant that the town’s six recently built mainstream primary schools are now mostly full to capacity, with waiting lists of up to several years to get children in. Many children are bussed to rural primary schools outside the town.
The town’s population has more than doubled in 15 years, shooting up from 11,000 in 2006 to over 25,000 according to the 2022 Census, making Portlaoise now the most populated town in the Midlands overtaking Athlone. It also has the highest percentage of people aged under 18 in Ireland.
Recognising that demand, Laois Offaly Education & Training Board recently contacted the Department of Education to suggest the need for a new primary school.
However the Department does not accept the idea.
Laois Offaly Education & Training Board’s Chief Executive Joe Cunningham has confirmed this to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.
“LOETB sent correspondence to the Dept. of Education highlighting the shortage of primary school places in Portlaoise and the need for consideration of an additional primary school to meet the long-term educational needs of the town and catchment area.
“We were informed by the Dept. that they are keeping the situation under review but plan to manage the situation in the short-term through additional accommodation at existing schools,” Mr Cunningham said.
Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley had first revealed the rejection at the May council meeting.
“We were all at the LOETB meeting, and were given stark figures with up to 200 in Portlaoise on a waiting list for primary schools. People are going to have to send children outside the town.
“I know that the LOETB put forward a proposal for another primary school and the department basically saying the overflow can be taken outside the town. Children from the estate across from the Holy Family schools are getting on a bus every day to go to Stradbally and that’s full up now. Unfortunately this was knocked by the department,” she said.
Cllr Willie Aird said it is “very wrong”.
“One of our duties is to have accommodation for schools in our area. I know the LOETB identified a site. We need four to six prefabs to link in with schools. An emergency is an emergency until we get the school built. We need to talk to our planning section and identify a site that is ideal. Everybody has to put their shoulder to the wheel in a crisis,” he said.
Last April, Portlaoise Municipal District wrote to the Department of Education, on foot of a motion by Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald. It asked the department to visit Portlaoise, meet local representatives and reps from the local primary schools, to “discuss the serious shortage of school places”.
Tens of millions have already been spent by the Department of Education, building new schools in Portlaoise as the population exploded over the past 20 years.
LOETB is patron of two modern secondary schools in Portlaoise; Portlaoise College and the town’s newest school; Dunamase College /Coláiste Dhún Másc which is awaiting its first permanent building.
Portlaoise has two further secondary schools, Scoil Chríost Rí and St Mary’s CBS, also rebuilt to sharing a multi-million campus in the past 20 years.
The town’s primary schools include Holy Family Junior and Senior Schools, Scoil Bhride NS Knockmay, Portlaoise Educate Together NS, Gaelscoil Phort Laoise and Maryborough NS. The new St Francis Special School for small children up to adulthood is already oversubscribed and requiring extensions, while a new school for children with more profound disabilities, Kolbe Special School is starting construction in the coming months.
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