Students at St. Eunan’s College in Letterkenny have called on Education Minister Norma Foley to visit their school amid delays to a major new building project.
Pictured above: Student council members and school principal, Mr. Damien McCroary, with a copy of the letter to the Minister.
The all-boys post-primary school is awaiting a €30 million two-story extension to ease long-term overcrowding issues.
The project was formally confirmed in 2021 and given planning permission by Donegal County Council in 2022.
However, no further progress has been made on the extension, which has been at the detailed design stage for two years.
The St. Eunan’s Student Council have this week issued a letter voicing their concerns with the “apparent indefinite interruption of the construction of the new school building”.
Head Boy Cian Blake has told Minister Foley that the current facilities in the school “restrict the potential of our students on a daily basis”.
Plans for a new extension at Saint Eunan’s College
The school, which has over 900 pupils and 100 teachers, has one art room, two woodwork/construction rooms, two science labs and two technical graphics/DCG rooms. This prevents Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate from accessing facilities for practical work.
Crowded environments in the canteen and narrow hallways also cause issues in the school, Cian said, adding that there is a lack of full accessibility for disabled individuals.
“Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that we, along with school staff and the wider community firmly believe that the resources available to us are grossly insufficient, compared to the needs of students over 50 years ago when our school was last renovated,” the Head Boy wrote.
Despite the limitations, Cian said the school has much to be proud of and has made remarkable achievements across the board.
As students await the extension, which will provide 37 general classrooms, 20 specialist teaching rooms and more facilities, the Student Council issued a formal invitation to Minister Foley to visit St. Eunan’s this year “and witness the exemplary work which we routinely perform”.
