Senator Kieran O’Donnell has announced that Monaleen National School is to get a much needed new 32 classroom school building.
“I am pleased to announce that Monaleen National School is to get a completely new 32 classroom school building to replace the existing school on the same site,” said Senator O’Donnell.
“This new 32 classroom building for Monaleen National school is now a priority project for the Department of Education and is being fast-tracked and will be built as quickly as possible.
“The fast-tracking of this new school building for Monaleen National school is critical and I have been in contact with Education Minister Richard Bruton and his Department in this regard.
“Originally, the Department of Education were looking at two phases involving building 8 new additional classrooms in phase 1 and refurbishing the exiting building as part of phase 2. This is now to be delivered as a single new 32 classroom school building to replace the existing school building. I believe this to be a quicker and more efficient way to provide this vital primary school accommodation for the Monaleen area.
“Monaleen National school has seen a rapid rise in pupil numbers in recent years, with over 860 students currently attending the school and is in urgent need of additional permanent accommodation. Over a long period of time, I have been working with the school and the Department of Education to progress this matter.
“Currently, many of the pupils are being taught in prefabs and this is not acceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. This has been a concern of mine and we must get students into permanent accommodation as fast as humanly possible,” the Senator concluded.
