Proposed housing development causes school places concern

A NEW proposal for over 200 homes in Dublin 15 could have serious consequences for local schools a Dublin West councillor has warned.

The 225 homes will be built close to St Patrick’s Primary School if a planning application lodged with Fingal County Council on July 25 gets the go ahead.

The proposed residential development will be built on a site to the south of Burnell Park, Mulberry Park and housing fronting Carpenterstown Road.

The land is also to the west of the M50 Motorway, to the north of Diswellstown House (a protected structure) and Luttrellstown Road and to the east of St Patrick’s and the Diswellstown Road roundabout.

The development will consist of 171 houses and 54 apartments on the 9.38 hectare site, of which 2.45 hectares will be public open spaces. The houses will be a mix of detached and semi-detached two storey, five, four and three bedroom units.

The one and two bedroom apartments will be built in two four storey blocks.

Dublin West Councillor, David McGuinness (FF), believes the development will have a significant impact on the area and warned of possible

“huge ramifications

? on school places.

“At a recent meeting in St Patrick’s, the principals of St Patrick’s, Scoil Choilm and St Mochtas outlined their concerns relating to the impact of a new primary school in the Carpenterstown region,

? he said.

“These three schools have co-ordinated enrolment procedures which they believe works well given the population growth in recent years. In order to compliment this hard work, the desired way forward is for St Patrick’s to be extended rather than have a new school built in the vicinity in the short term.

“The proposal for 225 new housing units in this area has put a real focus on the school issue. These homes could cater for anything up to 500 children of school-going age.

“This would place a huge burden on the existing primary schools and an impossible burden on Castleknock Community College and Luttrellstown Community College which are both over subscribed.

“It’s time for the Department of Education to outline its plan of action to deal with this pending crisis and for the new Minister for Education Jan O Sullivan to come to terms with this consistent problem in urban Ireland and decide whether she supports a new primary school with the significant difficulties this will add in the region or accede to the local Dublin 15 principals and extend St Patrick’s as a priority.

?