Fresh call for secondary school in Kinnegad as new estates set to drive population growth

Councillors from across the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District have backed a call by Kinnegad member, Cllr Denis Leonard, for provision of a secondary school in that town.

At the April meeting of the district, Cllr Leonard urged the council to write to the minister for education to re-examine the case for a school, pointing to a commitment made in the 2004 N4/N6 report which envisaged a post-primary facility for Kinnegad that never materialised.

He said recent planning permissions for large housing developments could see the town’s population rise from around 3,000 to 4,000, strengthening the case further.

Describing the current situation as untenable, Cllr Leonard said students are being forced to travel significant distances each day, as children from Kinnegad attend multiple secondary schools across the region.

“The heart goes out of the community every single morning,” he said, noting that in one instance a single class of pupils dispersed to as many as 11 different schools.

He argued that, while other towns along the N4/N6 corridor had benefited from new schools or major extensions over the years, Kinnegad remained “the one place in the middle” without its own secondary school, despite being one of the largest towns in the county.

The motion received widespread support from councillors across the chamber. Cllr David Jones said the scale of housing development in the area made the need for a school increasingly urgent, warning that infrastructure has to keep pace with population growth. He said it made little sense for large numbers of students to rely on buses or car journeys when a local school could allow many to walk.

Cllr Alfie Devine said the issue should also be considered in the wider context of delays to planned school extensions across the county, while noting that existing schools in areas such as Rochfortbridge and Killucan are already absorbing significant numbers of Kinnegad students.

Cllr Emily Wallace highlighted Kinnegad’s young and growing population, describing it as an “ideal location” for a secondary school that could serve both the town and its wider hinterland without negatively impacting neighbouring schools.

Cllr Niall Gaffney added that the daily movement of school transport through the town underlined the urgency of forward planning, saying mornings in Kinnegad resembled “Bus Áras” due to the volume of students travelling out of the area.

The District Office confirmed that, subject to members’ agreement, a letter will issue to the minister for education seeking a review of the case for a secondary school in Kinnegad in light of current and projected population growth.