Despite years of delay there is still no decision on where a new school to serve Tarbert will be located.
Since 1967, there have been plans to build a state comprehensive school in Tarbert. However, four years on, there is still no sign of a school being constructed.
The school would cost £200,000 to build and would teach all the subjects taught at vocational and secondary schools. The plan was that the school would serve Tarbert and Ballylongford in County Kerry and Glen in County Limerick. The delay has arisen with no local agreement on the exact location for the school. People in both Tarbert and Glin want the school built in their own area. Tarbert is questioning why a decision reached years ago has again been thrown open to debate.
Stephen Coughlan a Labour Party TD for Limerick East unusually, argues the case for locating the school in County Kerry, outside his own constituency. He says that the Department of Education had decided in favour of locating the school in Tarbert and is dismayed as to why there is now a debate on the issue. He believes that political pressure has put the plans in disarray.
The people of Glin in Limerick argue that there is a possibility that they will lose their state school and their vocational school. They say there is a building that could be used as the state comprehensive school. Stephen Coughlan says that the existing building is unsuitable and describes it as, the nearest thing to a workhouse. Department of Education officials have inspected the proposed building and declared it to be unsuitable. Glin currently has an ageing secondary school with 125 pupils and a vocational school with 32 pupils. Local people argue that some of these children would have to travel up to 13 miles if the school were built in Tarbert.
Tarbert is at the centre of the catchment area, with Glin and Ballylongford almost equal distances on either side. People in Tarbert also believe that the village will see large scale development in the future and need a school to accommodate a growing population.
John Pearse, a member of the Kerry Vocational Education Committee, argues that Tarbert is a port crying out for development. He believes that Glin does not have the same potential for growth.
You must put a school in a place where development is taking place.
John Pearse describes the proposed venue in Glin as a horrible building that is unsuitable for children.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 14 April 1971. The reporter is Michael Ryan.
