Senator’s blood boils at safety funding issues for Donegal Town school
Senator Manus Boyle ‘frustrated’ at funding issues for safety measures outside of Donegal Town’s Scoil Aodh Rua agus Nuala
A Donegal senator has criticised the failure to release funding for safety measures outside a Donegal Town National School, stating: “It really does boil my blood”
Senator Manus Boyle was speaking in regard to funding issues with safety measures outside Scoil Aodh Rua agus Nuala National School to Ocean FM, and questioned why Donegal was “left again,” and said the issue had been going on “for far too long.”
He said: “There have been a couple of near incidents where, thankfully, nobody has been badly hurt. Something needs to be done.
“It needs to be done ASAP. I was on the council back two years ago when this job was supposed to be starting fairly soon after that, and we are still nearly two years down the road, and it has not moved.
“I just get so frustrated because this is a health and safety issue. With my running a company in Killybegs, I know myself: if there is a health and safety issue, I have to sort it and get it sorted while my men are working, and I can’t understand why people are sitting back, and they are not acting and trying to get this.
“One of the basic things is to get our schoolchildren to school safely and get them home safely. It really does boil my blood, to be honest.”
When questioned if the buck stopped with the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, Sen. Boyle responded: “It does.”
He continued: “With Donegal, we also have schools in Ballyshannon, Keeloges, Frosses, Dunkineely, Killaghtee, just to name a few, with more or less the same problems. I can’t understand why these people are sitting back in departments and not getting this sorted.”
Regarding the supposed funding for Scoil Aodh Rua agus Nuala National School, Sen. Boyle said: “I thought that funding was in place a year ago, but I have been told since then that it hasn’t. We are waiting on the funding now to be sanctioned.
“To me, children’s lives going to school is a basic thing to be covered. It should have been sorted long ago, no more than Dunkineely, Frosses, and Keeloges. There are so many schools with problems with the safe routes to school. The department really needs to get a handle on it and listen to the people.
“I am just so frustrated with the whole thing. Why is Donegal left again? This is a basic right for children going to school.”