Parents plead for new school

PARENTS who are deserting a west Dublin suburb because of a chronic lack of school places in the area, have appealed to Education Minister Noel Dempsey to build a new facility.

Hundreds of parents in Lucan have no idea where their children will be educated because of the lack of school places. Planners and politicians are being blamed for allowing houses to be built with little thought about infrastructure.

In September 2002, a voluntary group of parents opened an Educate Together school in Lucan. Over 700 children’s names were received but at the moment the school has only 24 students, and two teachers, at a Scout Hall in Lucan Village.

Families are now being faced with the decision to leave Lucan in order to get their children into primary schools, according to Educate Together. A protest meeting has been organised by parents for next Saturday at 3pm at the proposed school site on Griffeen road.

Elaine Harris, whose family has lived in Lucan for generations, may be forced to move in order to get a school place for her four-year-old son Naoise, due to start primary in September.

“I am thinking of moving out. It’s an awful shame. I grew up on the Main Street, in the same house that my father was born in, the same house that my grandfather and grandmother lived in.

“When I got married and planned a family I decided to move back to Lucan and raise my children the way I was raised, near relations and friends and in a school that focuses on families from all denominations,” she said.

“The lack of school places in the area means the only confirmed place I have for my son is in a school based in the Scout Den. They do not have room to take on any children in September if they cannot move to a larger premises.”

Planning permission has been granted for a 16 classroom temporary school on a three-acre site. Negotiations for the purchase or lease of the site are ongoing but there is no guarantee it will happen this year.

Educate Together said parents have been told they will have to pay almost €700,000 for temporary accommodation for up to 10 years before the State will supply a permanent school building.