Ballygarrett Education Action Group (BEAG) today issued a press statement highlighting it's frustration with the lack of progress in relation to their campaign to have children from Ballygarrett allowed access to Gorey Community School (GCS). BEAG was formed in 2004 to campaign for this access. As a result of our campaigns the Department of Education have allowed our children access to GCS.
We have held several meetings with Department planning officials and have continued to correspond with the department behind the scenes for the last 3 years. At our most recent meeting with the department in March 2006, we were led to believe by senior officials that we would have some form of correspondence from them within a matter of weeks from the meeting. To date we have not received any official communication.
While the minister has announced a second school for Gorey which should alleviate the current
over-crowding problem, we have asked that in the interim our children be given access to GCS as they have in the past. We have met with the Department on two occasions and outlined our case to them. On each occasion we met with sympathetic ears and were given assurances that our case would be brought to the minister and we would hear from the officials within a given time frame. These promises have never been fulfilled.
Our members have spent countless hours on the phone to the Department in Tullamore. We have sent numerous letters by post and countless e-mails to all who attended these meetings, but to no avail. It would appear that the department are prepared to allow vulnerable families and children to go right through the appeals process and leave everything until the 11 th hour before finally granting these children access to GCS. It is beginning to appear that no amount of time spent in meetings or on telephones with dept. officials will elicit a response.
As we begin an election year we are calling on the people of our community to join forces and use the power of democracy to point out to our officials that we will not be ignored. Once in every five years we get an opportunity to send a message to the powers that be that the people of this country can and will make the necessary changes to get the job done.
Beag Chairperson, Paddy Sinnott said “It is time for those going forward for election to stand up and let the people of North Wexford know how they plan to deal with the Education Crisis in Gorey. We are the tip of the ice-berg. If this issue is not resolved now, it will become a major problem for the entire county. We need to tell our government officials that we are the ones with the votes and we will fight for our rights.”