Work on Saplings school in Graiguecullen to resume after three years

CONSTRUCTION on a new Saplings School in Graiguecullen for children with autism is set to resume after three years. The school announced in a statement last week that ‘works will commence in the coming weeks, with full construction scheduled to recommence this summer’.

The school is currently operating out of prefabricated buildings 6km from the school site in Killeshin, with the principal’s office in an adjacent cloakroom as weeds and bushes grow up around the half-built school.

Saplings school has around 30 pupils, ranging in age from four to 18 years’ old.

Building on the site started in March 2023 but ended after a few months, with just the basic groundwork completed as funding for the project was not enough to complete the entire build.

While the site was provided by Laois Co Council, funding for the project is not coming from the Department of Education but instead from the Immigrant Investor Programme, which is handled by the Department of Justice. The programme lets international investors donate money to developments such as schools and other public buildings in return for visas.

The school made an application for funding, with an estimate of how much the project would cost before the Covid-19 pandemic. The application was accepted, but in the intervening years building costs escalated, and when work began on the school the initial amount of funding was not enough for the building to be finished. The fund that was used to pay for the initial build has since closed.

Lesley Brant, the school’s principal, confirmed to The Nationalist in October 2024 that since the fund closed, money for the building has come from private donations.

In its statement last week, the school said: ‘The development of the new Saplings school to date has been made possible entirely through the generosity of private donors’ and that work on the school can now resume as Saplings school has recently received notification of additional funding becoming available following significant support from a range of stakeholders who recognise the importance of this project for children, families and the wider community’.

However, although work on the site is set to resume, the statement said that ‘a funding gap remains in order to fully realise the original vision for the school’.

The news has been welcomed by local elected officials from across the political spectrum.

The design of the new school will see every classroom have its own garden, resource room, sensory area and toilets. One end of the building will have an assembly hall and there will also be a therapy and sensory rooms. The school will also have an outdoor classroom and specialised outdoor play area.