TD Welcomes Announced Investment in Kildare Schools But Stresses Need For Further Funding

17th January 2006, Press Release

Deputy Catherine Murphy has welcomed an announcement this week by Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin that 6 Kildare Schools, 3 of which are based within her constituency of North Kildare, will receive funding for major works such as refurbishments, extensions and, in some cases, brand new school buildings.

However while pleased that investment is being made in the educational infrastructure of the county Deputy Murphy highlighted the urgent need for increased funding in this area to provide for the ever expanding populations of both North and South Kildare.

“This is great news for the schools who’ll receive funding from the Department of Education and I’m delighted for them but there are many towns and schools out there that have missed out on funding yet again. Kildare’s population has been rising significantly for a number of years and educational facilities should be pre-empting or at the very least matching this growth. To have only selected 6 schools in a county such as Kildare is just not good enough and while the Minister is heading in the right direction she needs to increase her expenditure in Kildare” – Murphy.

Gaelscoil Uí Fhíaich (Maynooth), Gaelscoil Nás na Ríogh (Naas), and Scoil Chóca Naofa (Kilcock), which are based within her constituency of North Kildare, were referred to by Deputy Murphy as “prime examples of schools catering to expanding populations”. And, although commending each on their successful efforts to secure funding for the announced improvements she criticised the system used to assess applications for such funding as lacking transparency, strategic planning and speed. “Simply coming out with a list of successful applications at the beginning of each year doesn’t give the public an understanding of what, if any, development strategy the Department of Education is applying. I’d like to see a situation where the N4/M4 Development Plan and its counterparts are used to determine when and where school building / upgrads takes place so that we can see what logic the Department is applying” concluded Murphy.

ENDS

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Posted by catherinemurphy on January 17, 2006. Filed under Education,Kilcock,Maynooth,Naas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.