The only special school for moderate, profound and severely handicapped children in Co Meath is to close at Christmas because parents and the board of management says pupils can no longer put up with "deplorable conditions" there.
The 63 pupils at St Mary's Special School at Athlumney, Navan, are being taught in a converted kitchen, a converted staff room and a small gymnasium. They can no longer use their four classrooms because a fire engineer said they posed an "unacceptable fire risk".
The school is looking for a site for a new building and had been hoping to use a few Portakabins as a temporary home until a suitable site was found.
However, a local resident has objected to planning permission for the Portakabins, and the issue is likely to be before An Bord Pleanala for about four months. As a result the school will have to close at Christmas. There is only one toilet for boys and two for girls in the school. There is no running water in parts of the school, and oil heaters have been brought in in an attempt to keep pupils warm. Some children have had to be withdrawn because of the cold. The curriculum has been suspended for the time being.
When The Irish Times visited the school yesterday, a large group of pupils was confined to a tiny area in the kitchen and a group of older pupils had only a small gym to use for learning and recreation. "Most of the pupils here have special requirements and are following very specific programmes which have had to be either suspended or altered because of this crisis," said the principal, Ms Maureen Hegarty.
She said the only hope of the school remaining open was if the objection to An Bord Pleanala was lifted. "The Portakabins are not really adequate in the long term, but they could be a temporary solution to our problem," she said.
"We have autistic pupils who are not getting what they need and a lot of pupils are out sick because of the cold in the place," she added.
The buildings are owned by the Sisters of Mercy, but they had to leave their portion of the building because of fire safety worries. The leader of Fine Gael, Mr John Bruton, who is a local TD, said he was "very concerned" about the situation. Those who objected to planning permission must "have a long hard look at the detrimental effects their exercising of their rights will have on the future of St Mary's".
A Department of Education spokesman said it was sending its architect to the school this week to see if he could assist the board of management. Funding was available for an alternative site and the Department was trying to assist the school in finding emergency accommodation.