PICTURES: Goahead to turn old Laois schoolhouse into social homes

An historic vacant Laois primary school has been approved to be turned into much needed council housing in Portlaoise.

Laois County Council has gained the approval this Monday, January 26, by councillors to a Part 8 plan to convert the old Church of Ireland primary school in Portlaoise, into 11 homes.

The listed building, Maryborough National School on the town's Stradbally Road, is to be carefully converted, with historic architectural elements to be replaced like for like, retaining its charming exterior.

There will be 10 new homes built behind it on the school grounds, which stretches back in a long site measuring almost 0.3 hectares, across the road from SS Peter & Paul's Parish Church in Portlaoise.

Laois County Council had bought the school, and is directly contracting to build the rental homes it will then lease to tenants.

It will be ideal for single people and small families living in the town, as Director Donal Brennan explained.

"It's good to see this redevelopment in the town centre. Because we have a very high number of one and two bed demands on our housing list, this actually targets those needs," he said.

Site layout of the new Maryborough homes, with the entrance from the Stradbally road (on the right). 

The plan was proposed by Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald.

"I think it's a great addition, it's so near town, across from the church, so near the shops, it's a great development. We've been waiting for it for a while," she said.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley seconded.

"It was actually one of the sites we had looked at at the time for the Laois Domestic Abuse refuge. I'm delighted to hear there's one and two beds, but I'm wondering when we will see four beds with downstairs disability facilities, I know that waiting list is a lot smaller, but I want to welcome this. It's a fantastic site on the Stradbally Road," she said.

The school will become a two-bedroom house where up to four people can live.  Five of the new homes behind it will be one-bedroom apartments, each able to accommodate two people. The other five two-bedroom apartments will be able to house up to three persons each.

A modern extension and side wings to the former Church of Ireland school property will be knocked down to make way for the new housing. 

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The plan for the now vacant building was first mooted publicly in June 2023 when the Council revealed in a management report that an outline funding application would be made to the Department of Housing between July and September that year.

Originally built in 1897, the use of the buildings as a school ended in 2014 when the children and staff relocated to a new home at Summerhill.