Steven Matthews TD has urged Minister Foley to move quickly to the next stage in the construction of the new 1000 student school for Greystones Community College. ‘We have waited far too long for the new school, and it has been very stressful for students, parents, staff and teachers in GCC. The next stage of approval and construction must start within the next few weeks’, said Matthews.
‘The next step is the ‘letter of approval’ which I have asked the Minister for Education to issue as soon as possible. In large build contracts like the new GCC school, there are fine details that need to be agreed between the stage of a ‘letter of intent’ and a ‘letter of approval’.
‘I am urging the Minister to urgently focus on agreeing these details and pushing the contract to the next stage. These details must be dealt with appropriately but speedily. We cannot tolerate any further delays on this crucial school build for Greystones.
‘Once the letter of approval has issued, I will be pushing the Department and the contractor to mobilise on site and get the shovels in the ground’, said Matthews.
‘The timeline for construction has been assessed as 65 weeks but I would caution that in my experience, these projects tend to run over rather than under time.
‘If the Minister acts quickly and the construction starts in mid-June or July, I believe with enough pressure behind it, a realistic timeline for students to be in the new building is January 2026. It’s important to be honest with everyone and not create an unrealistic timeline which ultimately could cause more disappointment, stress and frustration for families and school staff’.
‘The construction of the new 1,000 student building for GCC in conjunction with the extensions for both Temple Carrig and Coláiste Chraobh Abhann will provide a long-term solution to the secondary school place shortage for the wider Greystones area. The two school extensions are critical to the overall school places shortage in the Greystones, Delgany, Kilcoole and Newtownmountkennedy area and I am keeping pressure on the Department and Minister to speed up their construction too.
‘I will continue to offer every support possible to each school’s management team to work through any remaining concerns both for the coming school year and for future student intakes, concluded Deputy Matthews.
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