Nolan slams further delays to works on Birr school

Works at St Brendan's Community School in Birr are to face further delays, it has emerged this week.

The planned works at the school include an ASD wing, an extension project, and glazing upgrades.

Independent TD Carol Nolan has said the works, which were initially approved in 2018, "cannot be authorised" until the Department of Education's National Development Plan (NDP) implementation programme is published.

The implementation programme will be used for assessing all project rollout for the 2026 to 2030 period including in relation to St Brendan’s Community School.

Deputy Nolan said she is outraged by the Department's decision to impose what she described as additional bureaucratic barriers in the way of the delivery of project works for St Brendan’s.

“Just when the school thought things could not get any more protracted or convoluted, along comes this email like a bolt out of the blue. It is, to put it bluntly, absolutely despicable to continue to subject a school to this kind of torturous level of bureaucratic meddling especially when that very same department has already approved the works seven years ago,” said Deputy Nolan.

“I am in constant contact with the Department and the minister’s office about this issue and I hope to have a debate on the matter in the Dáil in the very near future. This cannot be allowed to go on. The lack of respect toward the school management and indeed the students is simply staggering at this point.”

“I am also concerned about how this may impact all other schools in the constituency who have urgent works in the pipeline,” concluded Deputy Nolan.