New school for Tulla

TULLA is to get a new school to replace the existing premises of St Joseph’s Secondary School, the Government confirmed this week. The announcement means the building will be constructed approximately one year earlier than this Government had previously expected.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, announced the funding for the new school, as part of his department’s new infrastructure stimulus public private partnership programme on Tuesday.
Back in March his colleague, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, announced the East Clare school would go to construction in 2015/16. The difference in this week’s announcement is that the private sector, rather than the State, will bear the initial cost of building the school. According to the Department of Education this will see the new school building delivered approximately a year earlier than anticipated.
“Not only did the Government announce that back in March but Mary Coughlan announced it back when she was minister following a delegation which I brought to her. She put that on the school building programme and based on her projections, it was due to start this year. So there is nothing new in this,” commented Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley.
“I really have to pay compliment to the previous principal Jimmy Cooney and the current principal Margaret O’Brien who have been working with myself over the last five years to get this on track,” he added.
Councillor Joe Cooney, whose three sons John, Conor and Gerard, have attended St Joseph’s claimed the project had been brought forward from 2015 to 2013. Acknowledging some of the accommodation in the school isn’t up to modern standards, he recalled a deputation to former Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe had previously highlighted the need for a new facility, without any success.
Having lobbied for a new school since his election to the council, the Fine Gael Councillor noted the school has a huge catchment area including Tulla, Broadford, Kilkishen, Clooney, Crusheen, Feakle, Killanena and Bodyke.
Describing the annoucement as a huge boost for the staff and students in East Clare, he hoped the contractor appointed to carry out the construction work would provide badly-needed employment to the large number of local construction workers, some of whom had already been forced to emigrate.
Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen visited the school last April where he was given a detailed briefing on the school’s plans for the proposed new development, which will be built on a greenfield site across the road from the current building.
“St Joseph’s Secondary School was included in the list of 43 new school development projects nationwide, announced last March as part of the €2 billion investment in the Five-Year School Building Programme, with construction scheduled for 2015/2016,” Deputy Breen acknowledged.
“I am aware that the school was anxious to see their project progressed as soon as possible given that they have been waiting over 10 years for approval to build the new building. This week’s news is certainly a huge boost in moving the project forward. The school has been included in a list of six schools nationwide in Bundle 4 of the Department of Education and Skills’ priority projects as part of its infrastructure stimulus package. This should now facilitate the school to start the design and planning stage, particularly given that the school has a site at the ready for the project,” he stated.
Fine Gael Senator Tony Mulcahy said it is “time to provide staff, pupils and the wider community with more modern surroundings”.
“Tulla, like many other areas throughout Clare, has experienced an increase in its population during the past decade. In the last five years alone, the population of the town has increased by approximately 3-4%. This population increase has inevitably put pressure on class sizes at the local secondary school. The provision of new accommodation will help to alleviate this problem and ensure that the second level education needs of Tulla are catered for well into the future,” he stated.
Procurement for the six schools named this week will commence on a rolling basis next year, with the completion of the schools bundles expected during 2017 and 2018.