This article is from page 6 of the 2012-10-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A LOCAL campaign to amalgamate Ennistymon’s three secondary schools has been resurrected, with a number of meetings taking place between the schools and local representatives in recent months.
A meeting involving representatives from the three schools – Scoil Mhuire, the Ennistymon CBS and the Ennistymon Vocational School – and a number of Clare politicians took place in Ennistymon last Monday, October 1. The meeting was attended by Fine Gael TD’s Pat Breen and Joe Carey and it is hoped that the renewed local campaign could help kick-start the project on a national level. The Clare People understands that the project is currently stalled by a complex legal issue involving the site designated for the new school. Until this issue has been resolved at a national level, progress on the school cannot be made.
A campaign to amalgamate the town’s three secondary schools has been ongoing for more than two decades.
It was announced more than ten years ago that a new school build- ing was to be built on a patch of land close to the current Scoil Mhuire building. Despite this announcement, construction work never began on the project.
The campaign to bring about the school amalgamation restarted in earnest earlier this year with a meeting between representatives of the schools before the summer break. This was followed by last week’s meeting and a third meeting is now planned for November of this year.
Responding to a parliamentary questions from Ennistymon Senator Martin Conway (FG) earlier this year, the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn (Lab), confirmed that the Government still planned to go ahead with the amalgamation – once any outstanding issues with the site have been resolved.
The three schools in Ennistymon currently have around 600 students between them.
Campaigners for the school amalgamation believe that educational facilities could be offered at a higher standard if the three schools pooled their resources into one large school. Students in the senior cycle also walk between the three schools as some classes are already being shared between the schools.