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LAST UPDATE | 4 Mar
A KILDARE PRIMARY school will close temporarily from tomorrow due to safety concerns.
The Board of Management of St. Patrick’s Primary School in Celbridge said it made the decision due to recent fire safety and building compliance concerns.
The Department of Education and Youth has said it will meet with the school tomorrow to ensure it “reopens as soon as possible”.
A parent’s association meeting with the school’s Board of Management has been arranged for tomorrow night at 8pm.
A message from the Board of Management to parents said that the decision had been taken in the “interests of the safety, health and welfare of our pupils and staff”.
It cited “independent assessments” which “identified a number of fire safety and building compliance matters which require urgent attention”.
The statement said the closure will allow for “priority works and ensure full statutory compliance”.
The Board of Management also said the decision has been taken “proactively” and that “acting at this stage allows required works to proceed in a controlled and structured manner, rather than responding reactively at a later point”.
It apologised for the disruption that will be caused to families but added that the “safety of our school community however must remain the overriding consideration”.
The school made an Emergency Works Application to the Department of Education assessment last year and a consultant’s report contained in it states that the modular prefab units “not fit for purpose” and “poses a serious immediate threat”.
This application has been viewed by The Journal.
The consultant’s report noted “serious breaches of fire safety regulations” and states that “deep remedial and retrofit works are required”.
Such fire safety breaches included “almost universal failure of fire-doors and catastrophic failure of the ground floor plate”.
Plywood on the ground floor was said to be “rotting and failing… resulting in collapse of the floors”.
There were also “multiple instances of water penetration at roof/ceiling level”.
The report added that “ad hoc repairs have been carried out over the years”.
In a statement this evening, the Department of Education and Youth said it made contact with the school authority today and arrangements have been made to meet with them tomorrow to ensure the school reopens as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department said it is “aware of issues” and has in recent weeks “engaged project managers and contractors to address structural defects”.
It received a number of emergency works applications from the school, including in June and November of 2025, which have been viewed by The Journal.
A Department spokesperson said additional information was sought from the school but “revised applications for emergency works funding were not received”.
Minister Hildegarde Naughton visited the school on 14 January and met with the Board of Management and school principal and was made aware of the issues.
The Department said that later that month, the school “decided to close two classrooms because of water ingress”.
The spokesperson said the Department then “arranged for a building surveyor and contractor to immediately attend the school” and that over the weekend of 24 and 25 January, two modular units were delivered and emergency repairs were completed on the roof.
The Department said it then engaged project managers and contractors and completed further remedial works to the classrooms that were closed, which was completed by 5 February.
The spokesperson said “considerable works have been carried out” since and that at present, there are roofing contractors on site carrying out significant works to the school roof.
The spokesperson added that the school has been “provided with written programme updates, including delivery timelines for specific works” and that the “most recent was sent to the school last Friday”.
“This programme outlined a number of actions which are planned, including use of the two modular units to facilitate the temporary decanting of classes to allow upgrades of classrooms to take place,” said the Department spokesperson.
They said that works will continue in the days and weeks ahead, including during the mid-term and Easter break.
The Department added that it is “satisfied that the methodology provided to the school addresses all the issues which have been raised by the school”.
Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North, Naoise Ó Cearúil, has said that the closure is “completely unacceptable and an immediate solution needs to be found”.
He added: “The Department of Education needs to stop sitting on their hands and act in the best interests of these children.”
He also called on the Department of Education to “urgently relocate unused modular classrooms from Mercy Convent Primary School in Naas to St Patrick’s National School in Celbridge”.
“There are modular classrooms sitting unused in Naas while children in Celbridge are being forced out of their school because the temporary units they are using are almost twenty years old and no longer safe,” said Ó Cearúil.
“The Department needs to move those units to Celbridge now. To my mind there is no reason why this cannot be done.”
He also said that “continuing to attempt repairs on the existing prefabricated buildings, which were originally intended to last only a number of years, is both wasteful and unacceptable”.
“Trying to patch up 19-year-old modular buildings again and again makes no sense, either from a safety point of view or a financial point of view.
“Relocating the unused classrooms from Naas is a common-sense solution that can be delivered quickly and safely.”
Meanwhile, he remarked that the “long-term plan for a permanent school must continue, but right now the priority is ensuring pupils and teachers have a safe place to learn and work”.
“That can be done quickly by relocating the available modular units from Naas.
“The solution is there. It is practical, it is affordable and it can be done quickly. What is needed now is urgency.”
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