Cork school has planning approved for permanent premises after 7 years 

Cork Educate Together Secondary School, the first of its kind to open outside of the Dublin area, has been housed at Griffith College in Cork City since it opened

Principal of Cork Educate Together Secondary School Colm O'Connor said the new school building will 'offer families a state-of-the-art digital campus and a mixed school with an inclusive and progressive culture.'

A Cork school has been granted planning permission for a permanent new home, some seven years after it first opened. 

Cork Educate Together Secondary School has been granted permission to build its permanent premises on a 22-acre site on Carrigaline Road. 

Principal Colm O'Connor said the school community is overjoyed and relieved that the process is over. The development was sanctioned in 2015, though a planning setback emerged in 2018 when proposals for a permanent building were denied on traffic grounds. 

Students, staff, and parents have endured years of uncertainty and inadequate educational facilities, Mr O'Connor said.

The school, the first of its kind to open outside of the Greater Dublin area, has been housed in temporary accommodation at Griffith College, in Cork City since it opened. He said: 

It is hard for people outside the school to grasp but that is approximately 160,000 hours of school experience for individual students and teachers.

Construction on the 22-acre site on Carrigaline Road is expected to take two years and will begin within the short term.

When completed, Mr O'Connor said it will offer families a state-of-the-art digital campus and a mixed school with an inclusive and progressive culture.

The application sought to build a three-storey development and included a PE hall, a two-classroom special educational needs unit, as well as 150 cycle storage spaces, 67 parking spaces, and four disabled car parking spaces, and ball courts.

It will also involve a new car, cycle, and pedestrian access to the building via the Carrigaline Road.

The school intends to work with residents to address any remaining concerns "to the best of our ability".

While planning permission has been granted, there remains the possibility that it could be appealed to An Bord Pleanála. And Mr O'Connor noted that with the current backlog at the planning board, an appeal could delay works by a number of years. 

“We could face a situation where there would be a two-year wait for a decision, and then a two-year build, so it could still be four years," he said. 

"That will be 11 years since the school first opened."

There are currently 368 students enrolled at the school