Plans to be lodged for 1,000 pupil Portlaoise school

A planning application for a new 1,000-pupil school for Coláiste Dhún Másc / Dunamase College in Portlaoise is due to be lodged in the coming weeks.    

It follows a meeting between Laois Offaly Education and Training Board and the Department of Education, Laois Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley revealed. He said the approval means a planning application for the secondary school can now be lodged with Laois County Council.   

“There was a meeting in the last few days with the Department and the Department gave approval at that meeting for it to move to planning stage,” Deputy Stanley explained. 

“That means this new 1,000 pupil college, which is in absolutely dire need of provision in Portlaoise, will move now to planning stage in the coming weeks,” he said. 

“There is a site secured in Summerhill. It is a 1,000 pupil school. The existing school at Coláiste Dhún Másc is bulging, there is more temporary accommodation going in there. That is necessary to accommodate for the influx that will be coming in September of next year,” explained Dep Stanley. 

He said the school is already operating from three separate campuses. Pupils must move between Railway Street, the old CBS in Tower Hill and the old primary school in Church Avenue each day to attend classes.

Dep Stanley said that while it was fortunate that there was accommodation on the three sites and that temporary accommodation had been provided, it wasn’t an ideal set up for the Portlaoise school. 

A pedestrian crossing and traffic calming measures have been put in place around the schools three buildings in the interest of safety. 

“I know from teachers in it, I know from Board of Management members, I know from pupils in it, the situation there is not ideal. The ETB and the school management in fairness to them, they are doing their best but what we need is this new single school designed  for 1,000 on this new campus in Summerhill,” he said. 

“The ETB can now push this project on to planning. The funding is earmarked for it. The site is available, so it should be all systems go now and I look forward to it being expedited. I certainly will be urging Laois County Council management and Planning Department to move this on as soon as possible,” he said.

Dep Stanley said he wasn’t able to put a timeframe on the project but insisted it was urgently needed. 

The school has 570 pupils at the moment but Dep Stanley said hundreds more students would like to attend the bilingual school if there was capacity.