Schoolchildren in Greystones, County Wicklow are demanding to know why their newly-built school still can’t open its doors.

Greystones Community National School has been holding classes in prefabs on the grounds of a nearby rugby club for the past five years.

Parents say the school’s brand-new building has been ready-to-go for months – and they have been unable to get answers from the Government on why it can’t open yet.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Michelle Boehm, Chair of the Parent Teacher Partnership at the school said students are now appealing for answers.

“We got fed up of lobbying our politicians and lobbying the Minister for Education and even lobbying members of her department and eventually we just decided, let’s get the kids to ask the questions because we were just being ignored,” she said.

She said the school children have now begun their sixth year in the prefabs.

“They broke ground on the school back in 2018 and even though it was supposed to be a rapid build, through the jigs and the reels and COVID etc. it got delayed,” she said.

“The builders pulled off-site in early July and the building looks fantastic from the gates that we looked through and we were told then at the end of July that the building was not going to be given to the patron of school for the coming year.

“We still don’t know why the school is not open or when it will be open.”

The new Greystones Community School

Also on the show, school principal Rory Kinane said the prefabs are fine as a temporary measure, “but it is frustrating to be looking at a spectacular building just around the corner and we can’t access it and we don’t know why we can’t access it.”

He said staff were given a tour of the new building earlier this year before they were informed in late-July that it would not be ready.

“Staff were shown the alarm codes and the water systems and we assumed at that point, right, surely we are going to get in,” he said.

“Then, literally a couple of weeks later, the call came to say we are not going to be allowed to move in.

“The building looks, to the untrained eye, it looks fantastic both inside and out. It looks ready to go. Obviously, there is some issue but we are not aware of what it is.”

Greystones Community National School

Mr Kinane said he has had no indication of when the building may be ready.

“We would like to know because, if it is a structural issue, that is probably a considerable bit of work and that is going to take months,” he said.

“Is it an argument over payment? That could be remedied pretty quickly.

“So, where are we? When are we going to get in there? It would be nice to have a rough timeline even but we haven’t even been given that so it is kind of frustrating to say the least.”

Handover

In a statement, the Department of Education said it is “taking the appropriate steps to ensure it is completely satisfied that the building is fit for handover prior to accepting it.”

It said it received a communication from the contractor on September 30^th that deemed “inadequate.”

A follow-up was then received at the end of last month and is now being consider.

“While this process is under way the Department will not make any further comment other than to say this matter is being expedited as quickly as possible,” it said.

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