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

OPW is 'ready, willing, and able' to deliver more quality schools in other parts of the country, Norma Foley told at official opening of new building in Kanturk

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.