Inver College extension 'not progressing' as hoped

THE urgent need for essential repair works and a major extension at Inver College was once again raised with Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board (CMETB).

At their most recent meeting, CMETB’s Director of Organisation Support and Development, Karen McBride, reported back to members that a visit to the Carrickmacross secondary school by the Department of Education’s technical team last month was “very positive”.

“It was a very positive meeting. The department have committed to repair roof leaks as a priority and compile a report on every issue brought to their attention,” Ms McBride told the board.

Addressing the director following her update, local county councillors Colm Carthy (SF) and Aidan Campbell (FG) impressed on Karen McBride and CMETB the urgency and critical need for both works.

Thanking Ms McBride for highlighting the issues at Inver College to the Department, Cllr Carthy said he is aware he sounds like “a broken record” but work is “not progressing as well as we would hope”.

A 2,696 square metre two-storey extension for Inver College is at the detailed design stage.

The extension will include a special education needs unit, four specialist classrooms, two SET rooms and a large general-purpose hall. The renovation of the 67-year-old part of the school will provide three new classrooms.

As the planning process inches along, during wet weather Inver College staff have to put buckets down within the building to catch rainwater from a leaking roof. The health and safety issues associated with this for staff and pupils had been raised with CMETB, which culminated in the Department’s site visit.

Cllr Carthy, who is also chair of the Inver College Board of Management, pointed to the “cost differential” of further delays and described as “crazy” how construction industry inflation is “currently running at 40 per cent”.

“Your costs are going to double in a few years’ time,” he warned. Apart from that, the Carrick councillor said, priority is “the welfare of existing staff and pupils”.

Another local councillor, Aidan Campbell, said he “backs everything Colm has just said” and approached the issue from the perspective of student numbers.

“The numbers coming into the school are very strong, but we’ve had to cap it,” Cllr Campbell said explaining that 200 students applied for places at Inver College this year, but the school had to reduce the cap from 140 to 120.

“There’s been a review and the Department says it will do the necessary repairs, but I don’t like that word, Karen,” he addressed the Director of Development, “We have to think of the welfare of teachers and students.

“They are catching water in buckets, it’s bursting at the seams with students,” he stressed.

“This school has been waiting a very long time and we’re turning people away.

If we turn away three students and one of them is the eldest child in a family the rest of their siblings go with them.

“Pendulums do swing, and we have to take our opportunity when the pendulum is swinging with us.

“Keep the pressure on,” Cllr Campbell asked of CMETB.