Department of Education officials confirm Kildare North Three School Campus is progressing and 'very important'

Officials from the Department of Education have confirmed that Celbridge’s Three School Campus project is progressing and is “very important” to the Department.

Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday morning, the Assistant Secretary for Planning, Hubert Loftus, told Kildare North TD Aidan Farrelly (SD) that the campus, which aims to relocate Celbridge Community School, St. Raphael’s Special School, and St. Patrick’s National School to a 17.74 acre site at Donaghcumper, will “create great opportunities for inclusion for students with additional needs.

“That project is part of our in the NDFA (National Development Finance Agency) program,” Mr Loftus said.

And he reassured the committee that “the NDFA programme is one of our very strong delivery partners, and certainly, that project will be moving forward.

“That project would have been impacted in terms of the particular site issues where that arose, and there's been a long history on that, with NAMA involved and all of that.

“But certainly, from a Department perspective, we're very conscious of the importance of it and the urgency of it.”

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Deputy Farrelly welcomed the news and said he looked forward to the campus finally opening.

Meanwhile at the same meeting, he also asked officials to review an application for emergency works from another Celbridge school, Scoil na Mainistreach, which had been rejected.

“This application was rejected despite very clear evidence of the need for significant works,” Deputy Farrelly said.

“Could I just ask you to undertake a review of this application? Very specifically, it's another roof, it's another leak, it's another significant problem facing children in Celbridge.

“We need to assure this community of 20,000 people that the schools are safe for their children.

“I've been contacted by the school and just asked me to really review this because, if they cannot access funding through emergency works, where can a school like this go to get the funding?

“They've already pumped a lot of money in themselves - what's going to happen?”

Mr Loftus agreed that the Department would make contact with the school.