Laois Offaly secondary school hits long awaited next step for new building

A landmark moment is being celebrated in a Laois Offaly secondary school that is bursting at the seams.

Coláiste Iosagáin in Portarlington has made progress in the plan to replace its outdated building and many prefabs with a new 1,300 pupil school building.

The school which has over 1,100 students is lodging a planning application to Offaly County Council.

It seeks firstly to demolish and remove the existing school and temporary prefab classrooms.

That will be followed by construction of new school, part three-storey, part two-storey, covering a vast 12,646sqm (over 136,000sqft) area.

The new school will have 48 classrooms, 24 specialist teaching rooms with associated preparation rooms, four special needs classrooms with a Special Needs Education suite, a double height multi-purpose hall with associated PE accommodation.

There will also be a library, staff rooms, administration rooms, toilets, stores, accommodation and also a double height General Purpose hall with its own kitchen and store. 

Outside there will be a covered area, a construction studies store, bin store an Air source heat pump and an ESB substation.

The existing building for Coláiste Iosagáin Portarlington. Image: Google Maps

The parking areas will be revised to offer 104 parking spaces for staff and visitors, six universally accessible parking spaces, 120 bicycle parking spaces, with temporary and permanent access from the Bog Road.

Sports facilities at the huge development will include seven hard play Multi-Use courts, a grass pitch, activity courtyards and a Special Education Needs garden / play area.  There will be a roof- mounted Photo Voltaic array of solar panels. 

A Natura Impact Statement will be submitted as part of the planning application. 

A plan for an extension began back in 2014 but never made it beyond design stage.

In 2020, principal Seamus Bennett, since retired and replaced by Justin Brown, told the Leinster Express that the school with over 1,000 pupils at that point was "cramped" and out of spare lockers.

He said that pupils have to walk outside to access prefab classrooms, creating a weather and a security risk to the school with doors unable to be locked. 

He expected at that time that a new building would cost up to €22 million, with the cost to be paid by the Department of Education.

Coláíste Iosagáin is an amalgamation of the town's former boys and girls secondary schools, all placed into the old girls school.

The new school was planned at that time to be built on playing pitches on the rear of the site, with new pitches to eventually replace the demolished current buildings.  

Plans for the new building will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The decision for the planning application will be due in late August.