Christmas comes early for Athlone Community College

Staff and students in Athlone Community College this week are celebrating after they got the best early-Christmas present they could hope for - the green light for their much-delayed new school. The multi-million euro development to cater for 1,000 pupils got the all important go-ahead yesterday (Tuesday) under a new Public Private Partnership process, announced by Minister for Education Batt O"Keeffe. 'We are delighted with the news. It"s a lovely Christmas present amidst all the doom and gloom,' Principal of Athlone Community College, Val O"Connor told the Westmeath Independent this week. The decision should end an ongoing impasse over the long-awaited building project which originally was approved prior to the last General Election. The school building is now expected to be in place in 2012. Back in late 2006 then Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin said in a letter to Senator Donie Cassidy that 'architectural planning' for the planned new school would commence with 'immediate effect'. However, afterwards there was no apparent progress and the project appeared to be at a complete standstill when the Minister revealed it was being 'assessed' by the Developing Areas Unit, eliciting fears that funding for the development was no longer there and the whole project was in jeopardy. This year the VEC, frustrated by the lack of movement on the ACC school project, stepped up a campaign to get it back on track with a series of meetings with Oireachtas members, Minister O"Keefe and a public meeting to brief parents and local people. This action appears to have bore fruit this week as the Minister congratulated the Athlone school on its selection and said he hoped that construction work can begin as quickly as possible on each building. He adding that he has asked staff to begin the pre-procurement process immediately. Under the PPP programme, projects are procured in bundles and offered to the market on a design, build, finance and operate basis. 'One of the main advantages PPP schools have is that the principal is not involved on a daily basis in maintenance and caretaking issues. These become the responsibility of the PPP operator for the period of the contract. The National Development Finance Agency will procure the schools for the Department of Education and Science,' said Minister O"Keeffe. Meanwhile, local public representatives were also quick to send messages of congratulations to Athlone Community College. Local FF Deputy Mary O"Rourke said it was wonderful news for Westmeath, commenting that the Public Private Partnership process has been very successful in developing large school developments to date. 'It will be a big construction project, I hope the builder chosen will give jobs locally and employ local people,' she added. Under the Public Private Partnership programme private companies place a tender to not just design and build the school buildings, but also to run and maintain them for the first 20 or so years. 'This announcement has been a long time coming and I now hope that this project will be expedited by the Department of Education,' stated Fine Gael"s Deputy Naughten. 'I am calling on the Minister to ensure that the patience of people in this area is rewarded and that this will not be a long, drawn-out process as has previously been the case,' while paying tribute to the work of the Parents Association and Board of Management to bring the development to this stage. Although welcoming the positive news, Deputy James Bannon sounded a note of caution that this commitment is followed through. 'According to the Minister, he hopes that construction can begin as quickly as possible once all necessary steps have been taken in the PPP process. This sounds a note of caution as the school has been sidetracked into assessment procedures on a number of occasions, despite the go-ahead having previously been given.' Cllr Frankie Keena said: 'I am absolutely thrilled with the news and welcome the news wholeheartedly. It"s been a long battle for the Community College. When I met the Minister in Tullamore three weeks ago I mentioned it to him and he reacted positively. It"s a positive step, it"s up to the school now to look for planning permission and I"m sure the local authority will look on such an application favourably.'