Kildare school building finally opens after eight-year fight

AFTER a eight year wait beset with delays and contract wranglings, the new school building at the Mercy Convent in Naas finally opened its door to the class of 2025-26.

The new, three-storey building now has a total of 32 classrooms, as well as a PE hall and a multi-sport layout with a 3G astro-surface playground with a running track surrounding this.

Each classroom will be fitted out with the most up-to-date IT equipment, including interactive whiteboards.

A recently as March 2024 Department of Education estimates could only foresee an opening for September 2026, however this was re-evaluated only a month later to shave a whole year off the wait.

Principal Cathal Ruane explained how hard it was for staff, children and parents to walk past a beautiful new school every day, but not be able to use it, which led Principal Ruane and a group of his pupils protest the delays outside Leinster House in April 2024.

Mercy Convent Primary School was first established in 1839 off the Sallins Road.

The school has grown over the years and the previous 27 classroom school was accommodated in various buildings ranging from a 1900 building (a protected structure) to a 1974 building of one and two storeys to a number of prefabricated freestanding single storey buildings.

The opening is very welcome news, however, local councillor Bill Clear has hit out at the Department for leaving four classrooms empty while “15 kids per school in Naas are left without a place”.

However, he did concede that these will be filled up in the coming years as each influx of infants moves up through the classes.

“We’re 10 years waiting for this school, my daughter went there and she’s now in university,” he said.

“It’s been that long, the sod turning was probably done by Charlie Haughey.

“With the significant growth in Naas this shows a disgraceful lack of planning by the Department of Education.

“I’ve seen parents turn up at the gates today (2 September) and yesterday looking for a place and it’s ‘tough, go somewhere else’.

“They will have to go out the country, or into Laois. We never seem to learn.”

As recently as March, 2024 150 parents urged four TDs and a Senator to finalise the contractual disputes that had held up the completion of this new facility and which resulted in having to pay a security firm an estimated €2m over this period to safeguard the premises.

This pressure along with the work of local public representatives, resulted in the final contractual difficulty being overcome.

The new school had been initially been given the green light in March 2017, and construction commenced in May of that year.

In January 2018, school operations transferred to a temporary building made up of pre-fabricated units, and students were expected to be in the temporary building for approximately 18 months to two years, however they were still in use up until recently.