PLANNED CLASSROOMS THAT were facing delays at a school in Dublin 9 could be ready to accept students by November, unless an appeal is lodged against planning permission, according to the Department of Education.

A dozen pupils with autism were earlier this year offered places at Corpus Christi National School starting in September, but parents were warned last week that a delay was likely amid back-and-forth with Dublin City Council on the school’s planning permission application.

The development caused worry for parents whose children had been offered a place for the new school year.

The Department of Education has now confirmed that a plan has been made for a construction approach that could allow students to move into the new classrooms by November.

However, that hinges on no appeal being lodged against the planning permission that has been granted to the school by Dublin City Council.

Temporary arrangements will be made between September and November to enable the children to begin school at the start of the term. 

“The Department is working closely with the School Authority of Corpus Christi NS to progress works on the parish hall,” the Department of Education said in a statement to The Journal.

“A full statutory application for change of use was required to facilitate the use of the parish hall as part of the project. A decision to grant planning permission for change of use of the Parish Hall was received on Friday 13th June,” the department said.

“A four-week appeal period has now commenced, if no appeal is lodged works on the project can begin week commencing the 14th July 2025.  The tentative timeline for completion of the works is November 2025,” it confirmed.

“The school authority in conjunction with the Department and the National Council for Special Education is working through contingency planning for the start of the school year.”

The new classrooms are being created by renovating an existing parish hall.

The parish hall previously was used by community groups but has not been open for use since March 2020, first due to Covid-19 and later due to fire safety concerns. A local movement has been campaigning for the hall to be reopened for community use.

In the school’s planning application in February, it detailed that it was requesting permission to convert the existing parish hall for education use, including external and internal building works to create new classrooms and facilities like toilets. It also plans to create five new fire escape doors.

Dublin City Council’s subsequent planner’s report in April said that some third-party submissions called for the community use function of the parish hall building to be retained.

Additionally, it noted that the land is subject to an objective in the Dublin City Development Plan to “protect and retain the Corpus Christi Parochial Hall as an important and necessary community amenity in Drumcondra”.

The council requested additional information from the school about how the hall would also retain a community use.

The architects behind the project responded in May to confirm that the parish hall would be available for use after 3.30pm on weekdays and after 10am on weekends, as well as for full weekdays during school holidays.

They said that the reconfiguration works “have been designed in such a way so that both the proposed new classrooms and the hall can operate independently of each other”.

Dublin City Council approved the planning permission request last week.

Days before the permission came through, the school’s Board of Management wrote to parents and apologised for the situation.

It said the project management team had advised the Board that the developments would delay the commencement of the building work to the hall until September 2025 or later should the planning authority decision be appealed to an Bord Pleanála.

“The Board of Management understands that this delay will cause disappointment and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to families and pupils who were preparing to begin the upcoming school year,” the Board wrote.