Why, Minister…?

We are de world…

ress release and video from the Greystones Community National School Parents Association, issued on Monday, November 9th 2020…

After a 5-year wait, the Greystones CNS new school building was due to open in September 2020.

Instead, the children are still in temporary classroom portacabins looking out at their new school building every day, which appears ready to move into, but the gates remain locked and the building empty.

This video, made and scripted by the pupils of Greystones CNS, is directed at Minister Foley.

The children are asking the same questions their parents, their teachers and local TDs have been asking. Why is the Minister not opening the gates to their new school building?

The school community have been left in the dark with no idea as to when the school building will be handed over. There has been no indication from the Department of Education And Skills (DES) as to when we will get to move in…

Will it be days? Weeks? Months? Or even years?

Children ask a lot of questions, and we as parents would like to be able to answer this one, especially in such uncertain times. It seems cruel to leave our children and teachers in limbo. Let’s start a conversation.

The Minister and her department have been asked about the delay in opening the new school building by our local Wicklow TDs. Deputy Whitmore raised a Parliamentary question which was not answered. Our parents have emailed all the Wicklow TDs, the Minister and officers within the DES with responsibility for school buildings. No one has received any answers.

The DES continues to pay large monthly rents to the Greystones Rugby Club and Intaspace for the use of the grounds and portacabins for Greystones CNS. The media reported that circa €11k was being spent a month on just renting the land from the Rugby Club.

The children, their parents and all the teaching staff have been waiting for over 5 years now. We need the Minister and her department to talk with us openly and honestly.

We want her to unlock the gates and let us move in, but if she can’t we’d like to know why.

You can chart the behind-the-scenes nonsense of the new school building here, and hear the inside story on why it hasn’t open right here.