Dept receives letter scrapping merger

The Department of Education says it will “not now be proceeding” with the proposed project to provide a new secondary school building in west Cavan in place of St Bricin's in Belturbet and St Mogue's in Bawnboy.

It follows a letter received by officials in March, after the majority of Cavan Monaghan ETB members supported a motion to have plans scrapped once and for all.

Pressure had been building on the organisation to bin its controversial policy ever since a meeting with Minister for Education, Norma Foley, in late 2021, that kickstarted a significant period for the two embattled local schools.

The merger was sanctioned by ETB members at a “special meeting” at the Slieve Russell Hotel in late 2018, and the Celt has learned the plans to build a new estimated €15M school in nearby Ballyconnell were supported by a spend of thousands on desktop studies.

This included feasibility study cost of €4,305, and a valuation report that cost a further €1,476.

A feasibility study, dated September 2018, commissioned to examine a two-storey extension with standalone PE facility at St Bricin’s, put the cost at circa €6 million.

The Belturbet school extension was first approved in 2013, with a grant of €994,000, but the plans went through a number of changes.

Dated April 2017, FOI records obtained by The Anglo-Celt, showed the ETB was to receive €1.74m for the works before the ‘viability’ of the project was called into question by the Department four months later, citing that costs had ‘escalated to €3,388,008.72 including VAT but excluding fees’. Soon after, the agenda shifted to talks of a merger.

Following the Slieve Russell meeting in 2018, the Department hired professional acquisition management firm Duff & Phelps to try to secure, as a matter of “priority”, a new school site.

A spokesperson at the Department stated subsequently that the site identification process was “challenging”.

Last week a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed receipt of a letter from CMETB confirming its wish not to press ahead with the amalgamation plans. The letter was received the day after members voted.

“Cavan Monaghan ETB wrote to the Department in a letter dated 28 March informing the Department that the Board had carried a motion to rescind the decision to amalgamate St Bricin’s College and St Mogue’s College. Accordingly, the Department will not now be proceeding with the proposed project to provide a new school building for the amalgamated school.”

They added in a separate response regarding costs incurred in progressing the plans: “A project to provide a new school building for the previously planned amalgamation was at a very early stage of planning. Some minor costs were incurred by the Department in respect of a site identification process, however, these cannot be disclosed at this time for reasons of commercial sensitivity.”