Kinnegad group pushing for secondary school and trains

The provision of a secondary school and the re-opening of Killucan Train Station are two of the key objectives of Kinnegad Action Plan.

A joint effort between “community stakeholders and local businesses”, the objective of the recently launched plan, according to its authors, “is to initiate and promote community-led socio-economic development and renewal over the coming five years”.

Located on the N4 and the closest Westmeath town to Dublin, the population of Kinnegad mushroomed during the Celtic Tiger years – from 415 in 1991 to 2,745 in 2016.

In a presentation at the launch of the action plan, chairman of the Kinnegad Steering Group Denis Leonard said that “no back-end infrastructure” such as a community hall, library and a secondary school was provided to deal with the rise in population over the last three decades.

The recent announcement that the town has been approved for a multi-million euro investment through the government’s Rural Regeneration and Development Fund should, it is hoped, provide much of the funding for a community hall, library, adult education centre and enterprise centres in the coming years, he stated.

However, the long campaign for a secondary school in the town continues.

In 2004 a Department of Education report highlighted the need for a 700-pupil secondary school in the town, after 2011.

Fourteen years after the report was published, Kinnegad is the largest town in the midlands without a secondary school, and each day 300 second level pupils leave the town, which the Kinnegad Steering Group estimates costs local families €33,000 a month, money that it says could be spent in the local economy.

The re-opening of Killucan Train Station will enhance education and employment opportunities for people in Kinnegad and surrounding areas, the steering group believes.

It will improve the quality of life of the hundreds of local people who commute to Dublin every day.

A local delegation including Deputy Robert Troy and local election candidates Denis Leonard (Labour), Becky Dore (FG) and Cllr John Shaw met the Irish Rail chief executive Jim Meade on Thursday March 21, to discuss the viability of re-opening the station, which closed in 1963 (see main story, below).

The Kinnegad Steering Group’s next meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday April 3, at Coralstown Kinnegad GAA at 8pm.