Tipperary secondary school lodges plans for major expansion
Tipperary Education and Training Board applied to Tipperary County Council for planning permission to add four new extensions to Coláiste Dún Iascaigh, on the Cashel Road in Cahir.The four planned additions will add a total of 2,500 square metres to the school, and will include a variety of uses.The first extension will be a part single-storey and part two-storey extension to the west of the existing school building, and will add four special needs education (SEN) classrooms, six general classrooms, four specialist rooms, and three special education teachers’ rooms.Extensions two and three will be technology preparation rooms, and will add space to the school’s existing technology offering, while extension number four will be used as storage space.Under the plans, the school also hopes to construct new vehicular gates to a service yard, a covered storage area, and modifications and extensions to the existing car park to provide additional parking spaces and an SEN set-down area.The development would also include two new covered bicycle shelters, the relocation of two existing shelters, as well as an enclosed SEN play area and sensory garden.The school currently has 892 students and 100 teaching staff, according to files submitted in support of the application, however, the proposed extensions do not seek to increase the number of students at the school."On the contrary, enrolment is projected to decrease modestly to approximately 880 students in the coming years,” an agent for the school said.According to the architects, the plans are about adding quality to the school’s offering, rather than to cater for more students."The intent of the proposed development is therefore qualitative rather than quantitative,” the agent explained.The development will aim "to reallocate and better accommodate the existing student body within a more suitable and modernised educational environment,” they said.Coláiste Dún Iascaigh first opened in 1997, and caters for both boys and girls. Mr Peter Creedon is the current principal of the school.The school currently has 20 general teaching classrooms, two IT rooms, two home economics rooms, four science labs, a PE hall, an art room, a library and a canteen.Tipperary County Council is due to make a decision on the planned extension by March 25.Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
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