*St Caimin’s Community School, Shannon
TWO schools in Clare have recently been granted permission to extend.
Clarecastle National School and St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon have both been given the green light to proceed with their planned extensions.
Welcoming the announcement, Deputy Cathal Crowe (FF) said, “Both schools have ambitious extension plans and I look forward to seeing these additional spaces come online.”
“Whilst these extensions won’t be completed in time for the coming school year, I hope construction will be swift on both projects and can bring around the boost in student spaces in areas which are currently seeing a bottleneck.”
€155.25m has been provided in capital funding for schools across Clare since 2020. This included the upgrade of 28 schools, either through provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension, or modular education.
Seven school projects in Clare are currently under construction. This summer, nine of the schools have been approved to undergo works as part of the Summer Works Scheme/Climate Action scheme.
Crowe added, “I have been working closely with a number of other schools around County Clare who are also looking for extensions to their schools and I have received assurances that there is still scope for further projects, which were not included in the announcement, to proceed and I will be pushing very hard for them to receive the go-ahead from the Department of Education.”
Additionally, 43 special classes have been opened in Clare, five of which were sanctioned for September 2026.
“This is all very welcome investment in education in Clare and I will continue to push for further projects to receive the funding and approval that schools around the county have been looking for.”
