The Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, has given the following update on the construction of a new permanent building for Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School. This is an important project that will benefit this new school in an area with a growing population.
"Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School is a co-educational school, under the patronage of Educate Together.
The school building project for Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School is included in my Department’s Capital Programme which is being delivered under the National Development Plan. The brief is to provide a new 1000 pupil Post Primary school plus a 4 classroom Special Education Needs Unit together with all ancillary accommodation on a site off the Ballyogan Road adjacent to Leopardstown Racecourse.
The project was assigned to my Department’s Design & Build delivery programme in August 2018 following acquisition of the site. This delivery programme uses a professional external Project Management team to progress the project through the stages of architectural planning, tendering and construction. Architectural Planning commenced immediately and an application for planning permission was lodged with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in December 2018 following pre-planning meetings with the Council.
A Notification of Decision to Grant Permission subject to 18 no. conditions was received by the Department on 13th June 2019. Two of these conditions requiring the provision of an extensive public greenway on third party land were subsequently the subject of a first party appeal by the Department to An Bord Pleanála. The decision on this appeal was due to be received this month, but has now been extended by ABP until the 19th January 2020.
The next step in the progression of this school building project is to proceed to tender and construction stages which will happen as soon as the appeal decision is received.
Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School is currently sharing the new school building for Stepaside Educate Together National School under a temporary sharing arrangement. As enrolments at both Schools continue to grow, it is expected that alternative temporary accommodation on the permanent site, will be required to accommodate Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School from September 2020. The temporary accommodation provisions are currently being arranged by officials in my Department in conjunction with the Project Management team."
The new building will be developed on a dedicated site off the Ballyogan Road adjacent to Leopardstown Racecourse.
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