St Ciaran’s to benefit from £25.8million financial boost

A £25.8 MILLION funding boost for St Ciaran’s College in Ballygawley has the potential to help transform the facilities at the school.

It has been almost 30 years since extensive refurbishment work was last carried out on the school. The hope is that this financial investment will help sustain and improve the current amenities over the coming decades.

Now the school’s principal Paul Lavery, says both the teachers, students and the wider school community are excited about this latest development.

“We are delighted to have been included in the works announcement by the Education Minister and this has certainly given us a boost,” he said.

“This will mean improved facilities for young people in our school and everyone at the school is now looking forward to entering the planning stage for how this allocation should be invested in the future of our students and school community.

“Everybody here at St Ciaran’s is all the time working to improve what is on offer for our students.

“There is a lot of emphasis now on digital technology and we hope that this money will provide an uplift for our provision of education, our facilities and help our students enter the ever-changing world of work.

“Our school community certainly deserve this boost. We are an all-ability school, at the nucleus of the community. Our students deserve the best and hopefully this financial boost will provide that for them in the future and this will certainly help in our quest to keep investing and improving.”

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, Colm Gildernew, also welcomed the announcement and particularly the boost for St Ciaran’s.

“St Ciarán’s is a first class school at the heart of our community. This progression to planning stage and funding commitment will help ensure that our young people continue to have access to the very best facilities and opportunities in life,” he said.

The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) also welcomed the announcement. Its Chief Executive, Gerry Campbell said the announcement would have a ‘highly positive’ impact on staff, students and school communities.

The announcement of the financial investment was made by the Education Minister, Michelle McIlveen in a statement to Stormont earlier this week.

But it is likely to be some time before the money filters down to works on the ground.

However, the completion of the schemes will be subject to the level of capital resources available to the Department towards the end of this decade and into the next.

“In making this announcement… it is my intention that these projects should be taken through to construction,” the Minister said.

“However, I would stress that authorisation to proceed to construction on any individual project will be based on the level of capital funding available at the point when a design is complete and all necessary approvals have been secured.”