Structural inspections at three Ashbourne schools to take place tomorrow

Structural assessments are due to take place on the three schools in the Ashbourne Education Campus tomorrow, with results expected by the middle of the week.

Some preparation work is due to be carried at Gaelscoil Tulach na nOg in Dunboyne tomorrow ahead of their inspection which is expected to take place on Wednesday of next week.

As of this morning, St Paul's NS, Ratoath had not yet had a date confirmed for their inspection, but the Department of Education has indicated that it intends to have assessments on the majority of if not all schools completed by the end of the mid-term break.

While 42 schools built by Western Building Systems are being assessed, it appears that the focus of the greatest concerns  are for three-storey buildings constructed by the company prior to 2014.

Four of the Meath schools were completed in 2016- Ashbourne Educate Together, Gaelscoil na Mí, Colaiste de Lacy and Gaelscoil Tulach na nOg- while St Paul's NS Ratoath was completed in 2011. The Meath schools are all two-storey buildings.

They are among 42 schools nationwide that are being urgently assessed after the discovery of serious structural issues forced the closure of three Dublin schools to date- two in Tyrellstown and one in Balbriggan.

Sean Ó Laimhín (John Hand) principal of Gaelscoil Tulach na nÓg, which was completed in 2016, said he did not anticipate there would be a problem with their school. "Our school was built after 2013 and had assigned certifiers. The building was certified at every stage of the work, so I don't think there will be a problem. 

"We had a fire inspection last year and the school was perfect so I don't anticipate there will be an issue".

Clár Ní Mhaoláin, Principal of Gaelscoil na Mí said a team is due to carry out the inspection of their school tomorrow morning.  "With all the contact from the Department, we are very assured that the appropriate people are taking the appropriate action," she said and added that "school life goes on."

She also highlighted that the concerns seem to be focused on three-storey buildings and theirs is a two-storey building.

Cllr Alan Tobin, who is on the Board of Management of Ashbourne Educate Together NS, commented that they hope that because the schools on the Ashbourne Education Campus were built after more stringent regulations came in, they should be ok.

"The gut feeling is that we will be ok as the schools came under the new building control regulations. There were assigned certifiers on the project to sign off on the various stages and we hope that becaume of these stricter regulations, those kind of shortcuts didn't happen in our schools." It is expected that they will find out on Wednesday the results of the assessment.

Meanwhile, Cllr Damien O'Reilly has stated that he has long been concerned over rapid build schools and fears they will all begin to collapse and fail in 20-30 years. 

"I've always had long term concerns about these fast build schools that in 20-30 years time they will all begin to collapse and fail at the same time and the Government at the time will face an emergency multi-million school rebuilding package around in 20-30 years. We need to go back to traditional building methods. The old school in Dunboyne is there since 1908 with no problems, and will still be there in another 100 years with no problems compared to these fast build schools that will all fail in 20-30 years."

"It will be similar to flat roof libraries and schools which were built in 1970s Ireland which have all failed in the last decade and have been reconstructed. Ireland never learns."