Parent’s appeal for Gaelscoil site

ON Monday next, Cork City Council will vote on whether to rezone a portion of the ‘Tank Field’ in Montenotte to facilitate construction of a permanent building for Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn, Cork’s only multidenominational and co-educational Gaelscoil.

I am a parent of children attending the school which for the past eight years has been housed in prefabs. Since my children were toddlers we as a family have used the Tank Field for recreation and I would not in good conscience recommend any development that would mean the loss of this vital amenity.

However, I see no reason why this would be the case. The Tank Field will not be lost. The site consists of an area of 11 acres, 2.5 of which have been earmarked for the school development. It is my understanding that the remaining area will still be available to the community. At present the area comprises of two pitches, Brian Dillon’s GAA club, a prefabricated school and one area between the pitches which is littered with broken glass and deemed by the city’s parks department as too small for regular maintenance.

Following the development of a new school building there would still be two pitches. Brian Dillon’s will be facilitated in moving their entrance and upgrading their facilities and our children will finally have a proper school. In my opinion it is a win-win situation.

It is simply not acceptable that at this time of economic prosperity, children should have to see out their formative years in accommodation that was never designed for educational purposes. In winter the prefabs are very cold, in summer they are the equivalent of an oversized greenhouse. Many of the classrooms are considerably smaller than what is recommended by the Department of Education; they are without running water unless you wish to count the recurring leaks. They are also poorly insulated allowing noise to spill over from classroom to classroom.

The children must use Brian Dillon’s car park as a yard and their hall as an assembly area. This is simply not good enough for pupils or teachers.

Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn was founded 14 years ago. Successive boards have tried in vain to secure other sites on which to build, and for the past five years they have worked extremely hard towards the development of a school on the Tank Field.

Finally, we can begin to hope for a brighter future for our children. As a resident I fully understand local concerns regarding traffic and other issues, but I believe that, on balance, supporting the school development is the correct course of action.

To do otherwise is to condemn our community’s children to education in substandard accommodation that must have an adverse effect on them.

City councillors have already voted to sell this land. The Department of Education has deemed it suitable and pledged the necessary funds for the building.

I ask the councillors to be consistent and vote to rezone the land to make planning possible.

May Fitzgerald

‘Currabeha’

Iona Road

Mayfield

Cork