Volunteers tackle school repairs after fund cancelled

GERRY Clerkin should be looking forward to the start of work on the €600,000 replacement of dozens of windows at St Patrick’s National School in a few weeks.

Instead, the principal has had to rope in 20 staff and volunteer parents to repaint the 30-year-old windows, which pupils will have to sit under for another winter because of the cancellation of the Summer Works Scheme.

The school’s 480 pupils are taught in two buildings on the grounds of St Patrick’s teacher training college in Drumcondra on Dublin’s northside. The aluminium window casings are set in teak frames but the glass is just four millimetres thick, and is liable to smash into tiny dangerous shards if broken.