ETB prepares to lodge planning application for Three School Campus

Plans are ready to be lodged for the new Three School Campus in Buncrana some five years after its site on the Causeway Road was acquired by compulsory purchase order.

An application will be submitted to Donegal County Council for the new campus by the Donegal Education and Training Board which managing the project on behalf of the Department of Education.

The development will see the construction of a new shared secondary school building for Crana College and Coláiste Eoghain, along with a separate new primary school building for Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha.

The campus will provide a first permanent home for Irish language education in south Inishowen. Coláiste Eoghain, established in 2007, currently operates from rented premises at Tullyarvan Mill, while Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha has rented classrooms in Buncrana Youth Club since it was established in 1999.

Photo Gallery: See inside the new Moville Community College building which opened in January

The secondary school building will be part three-storey and part two-storey with a gross floor area of approximately 13,497 square metres – that’s more than twice the size of the new Scoil Íosagáin building that's currently under construction in the town.

The new Crana College / Coláiste Eoghain premises will contain 31 general classrooms and 24 specialist classrooms, as well as four special needs classrooms within a dedicated Special Educational Needs suite.

The building would also include a multi-purpose hall with associated PE facilities, a double-height library, staffroom, administration areas, a general purpose room with kitchens and stores, along with toilets, storage and other ancillary accommodation.

The new primary school building for Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha will be part two-storey and part single storey, with a floor area of about 2,459 square metres. It will comprise eight mainstream classrooms, two special needs classrooms within a SEN suite, a general purpose hall, library, staffroom, administration areas and other ancillary facilities.

The new school will be built in this field off the Causeway Road.

A one way system for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians will see traffic enter from the Causeway Road and exit onto Taobh an tSrutháin. Car parking and set-down areas are also proposed. The secondary school will see 75 standard parking spaces and five universally accessible spaces along with cycle parking for 140 bicycles. The primary school will have 18 standard parking spaces and three accessible spaces, as well as bicycle parking for 25 bikes.

Sustainability measures such as roof-mounted solar panels and water storage tanks are also included in the plans.

The application also outlines a range of supporting infrastructure and outdoor facilities across the approximately four-hectare site. These include five multi-use games areas and hard play courts for the post-primary school and one hard court for the primary school, along with grassed play spaces, outdoor activity courtyards and dedicated SEN garden and play areas.

The planning notice was published in the local press this week.

Built in 2030

No timelines have been provided for the construction of the school buildings, however, based on the Department’s five-stage process for major building projects, it will be 2030 before the first students will actually be taught there.

Preliminary design work, including site survey and initial layouts, was completed late in 2023.

However, the 24 months allowed for second phase, which includes detailed design and obtaining planning consents, should have been complete by December 2025. With the planning application only being lodged in March 2026, the project will be several months behind schedule if and when planning permission is granted. Twelve months is allowed to complete the tendering process (stage 3), 24 months for construction (stage 4), and 12 months for handover. Assuming planning is granted sometime this summer, it means the doors of the school will open to students – at the earliest – in the autumn of 2030.

There’s much talk about the slow pace of infrastructure delivery by the State, and the three school campus is a case in point.

Despite the need of new premises for Crana College and Gaelscoil Bhun Cranncha being identified in the early 2000s, it could take until 2030 for those to be delivered.

That said, the acquisition of the site in July 2021, after 20 years of fruitless searching in an around Buncrana, could be considered the real starting point. Until a site was secured, the long-mooted school campus really was pie-in-the-sky.