CONCERNS have been raised at national level over the 16-year delay to an upgrade to a Clonakilty school which is now plagued by leaks, rats and dry rot.

Cork South-West Fine Gael Senator Noel O’Donovan emphasised the dire need for action in the Seanad on Wednesday, calling on the Department of Education to speed up its planning process for the repurposing of buildings at the school.

The Senator recently welcomed Sacred Heart students to Leinster House as part of a nationwide competition, describing the 541-pupil all-girls school as a high-achieving cornerstone in West Cork education since 1941.

The school excelled academically, culturally, and socially, he said. Approved in principle to stage 2A with design team information submitted, the renovation project currently awaits the next planning stage.

Senator O’Donovan gave details of health and safety issues from a recent visit: the old convent, where progress was previously stalled by bats, leaks from the roof with pigeons entering, causing rapid deterioration.

The former boarding house, officially assessed to be in poor condition, remains in daily use due to no alternative spaces.

The technology room shows visible dry rot, the Senator said.

Renovation plans and cost estimates sent from the school to the Department of Education went unanswered, risking a part-closure and loss of key classes. Pest control had identified the convent as a breeding ground for rats, it had emerged.

‘This is not acceptable from a health and safety point of view in 2025,’ the Senator added. ‘The school should be focusing on supporting learning, not on keeping ahead of leaks, dry rots and rodents.’ He said the school deserved facilities that reflected the level of education it provided.

He urged a definitive timeframe, clear phasing, and urgent works for the boarding house and technology room, adding: ‘After 16 years, the level of frustration is entirely understandable’.

Quoting WB Yeats from the school’s own website, he continued: ‘Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire. School development and construction work certainly needed a fire to be lit underneath.’

Frankie Feighan, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, replied on behalf of the Education Minister.

He said Sacred Heart Secondary School had been approved as a major devolved construction and refurbishment project, to provide for the long-term projected enrolment of 600 pupils. He said CEIST had provided a design team and was responsible for bringing the project through the tender and construction phases.

The design team had responsibility for speedy progression of the project through its various stages, Minister Feighan said. Clonakilty Sacred Heart had recently been granted approval as part of the architectural design stage 2A.

At this point, it was not feasible to give a definitive timeline for the completion of the project, but the Department of Education would continue to engage directly with CEIST to provide assistance to the project as required.

The Minister added the Department had invested more than €6billion in schools under the National Development Plan.

Senator O’Donovan said he wanted to assure the people of Clonakilty and West Cork that he would be raising the issue until construction commenced.