A secondary school and sports club in a new Dublin suburb have appealed to the Department of Education not to prevent the development of what they say are vital sports facilities for children and teenagers in the area.
Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School moved into its purpose-built school building last year.
Prefabs it vacated were supposed to be removed so that pitches and a running track could be built on the school grounds. The school planned to share these amenities with local sports clubs.
However, the Department of Education said it needs to keep the prefabs in situ and use them to house a new special school to cater for children with intellectual disabilities. This is one of five special schools that are due to open for the coming school year.
Amid a significant and pressing shortage of school places for children with additional needs, the department says these schools are "a key priority".
"The urgency associated with establishing these new schools means that existing accommodation must be utilised and this will allow the schools to open as quickly as possible," it said.
This week students, staff, parents and representatives from local sports clubs marched through Belmayne to highlight their cause.
Belmayne ETSS says it is an inclusive school, has two special education classes of its own, has plans to open two more, and fully supports the establishment of a much-needed special school in the area.
It offered the department the use of a two-storey wing of its large new school building, which it has yet to 'grow into', to house the special school for the next four years.
However, the department has said this accommodation is reserved to meet the current demand for additional special classes in the area as identified by the National Council for Special Education.
"All these prefabs were supposed to be removed and we were supposed to get three basketball pitches, a multi-use games area, loads of athletic facilities including a long jump," Principal of Belmayne ETSS Ashling Kenevey said.
"We need this space for our students and the community, we were going to open it to local groups, including Clongriffin Athletics Club and Trinity Gaels [GAA club], on Saturdays and Sundays. That has all been taken away from us now.
"It’s just apartment block after apartment block going up and there has been no thought for new outdoor spaces or sports facilities."
Jeremy Lyons is an Olympic sports coach and also the founder of the local running club, Clongriffin AC.
"There is no joined-up thinking between the Departments of Education and Sport and Health," he said.
"I was in Paris [at the Olympics last summer] as a coach with Team Ireland, specifically the 4x400m women’s [relay] team that came fourth, and I remember back in those balmy Parisian nights the Government people fawning over us telling us they were going to support sport, they were going to build sports facilities.
"Yet six months later here we are, grassroots in the community and there’s no sports facilities. There is no joined-up thinking," he said.
"Physical literacy has fallen off a cliff. We are squeezing kids' spaces. The area is growing, it's brilliant, but there are no places here for kids to play safely whether in a non-structured or in a structured way. Now we have the school stepping forward for a genuine cross-community project but they are being blocked," he continued.
Mr Lyons and pupils and staff at the school make the point that children with intellectual disabilities need and deserve proper facilities too.
"The school is giving a solution," Mr Lyons said, "saying you can use our permanent building [to house the special school]. It is just so frustrating."
Fionín Ó Healaí was among a number of parents who joined students and staff at the protest to highlight their concerns.
"The area from the Malahide Road to the coast, my understanding is, there were 25,000 units earmarked for here, which is a population greater than Galway city, and there are no new facilities.
"There is no new Gaelic football pitch, no new soccer pitch, tennis clubs, anything like that. Our athletic club, which is very successful, they have no facilities at all," he said.
School students carried placards and marched from the school down a main road lined with newly constructed apartment buildings. They spoke of a lack of places to hang out and a lack of facilities.
Others in the community have complained of a rise in anti-social behaviour and drug-taking involving young people in the area. They said the need for healthy pathways and pursuits for teenagers growing up in this young suburb was pressing.
Inclusion Ireland, which advocates for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities and their families, has said it is supportive of the school’s stance.
Between a severe shortage of school places, including places in dedicated special schools for children with additional needs, and a clamour from parents demanding that the shortage be addressed urgently, its CEO Derval McDonagh said: "All children deserve to go to school in the highest quality environment, in their local community, and with the best facilities and it shouldn’t be an 'either or' situation where if you get special school places you are sacrificing a nice environment for the whole community, and if you have a nice environment you are sacrificing school places for children with intellectual disabilities."
"We should never have that conversation because ultimately everybody wants the same thing for all children," she added.
In a statement, the Department of Education said: "Belmayne ETSS is naturally disappointed with the requirement to retain the modular accommodation on the site but the Department is working closely with the school’s patron to support the optimised use of the remaining external area and the significant internal accommodation facilities at the school."
