Principals feel 'abandoned' to manage new school projects, minister claims

School principal Eilish Finnegan; Minister of State for the OPW, Patrick O'Donovan; Bishop of Cloyne, William Crean; Education Minister Norma Foley and Michael Walsh, chair of the board of management, at the opening of Scoil Naoimh Padraig in Kanturk, Co Cork. Picture: David Creedon
Some school principals feel “abandoned” to manage complex building projects without the required skills, a minister of state has claimed at the official opening of a new school in north Cork.
Patrick O’Donovan, the minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), made his comments in Kanturk at the opening of Scoil Naomh Pádraig, a new 16-classroom co-educational school which was built by the OPW for the Department of Education to facilitate the amalgamation of two local primary schools.