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CommunityCouncil
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The Department of Education has identified the need for 3 new primary schools for Donabate. This is based on the projected population growth of the area.

The Donabate Local Area Plan specifies that the schools will be located in the following locations:

1. Corballis - east of the railway line
2. Ballymastone - southern section (in the field at the back of The Links and The Spires estates)
3. Ballymastone - northern section (near the GAA club)

The Fingal Schools model has been adopted as best practice by the Department of Education. The basic idea here is that the local authority sells land to the department for a school to be built on. The local authority uses this money to invest in local amenities.

It’s called the Fingal model, for a good reason: Fingal invented it!

Everybody will agree that we need improved amenities in Donabate. Fingal is one of the biggest landowners in the peninsula. The council is even the proud owner of a derelict site that used to be home to a school.

So it would stand to reason that Fingal would apply its own model, that has been deemed such a good idea that it is now national policy, for the delivery of the next school in Donabate.

If they do this, the community will gain much needed amenities.

If you see this as the correct choice then I have bad news for you.

The Fingal Model will not be used.

The next school will be built on privately owned land.

There will be no improved amenities.

As for the locations of the schools. Are they going to be built in the locations that were agreed unanimously with all the councillors?

That’s a big fat no!

So then, will the schools be built in the sequence that’s been agreed?

No!

But what would we expect from a council that spends less than 15 cent on every euro it raises from development levies on infrastructure?

Stay tuned for our next feature: The Road to Nowhere!
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