New 1,000-pupil school for Portlaoise approved 

PLANNING permission has been granted at last for a new building for Dunamase College in Portlaoise, with state-of-the-art facilities for 1,000 students.

It is long overdue but welcome news for the county’s newest secondary school, which opened in September 2017 but is still based in three separate buildings in the town centre.

The new school on the Timahoe Road will contain general classrooms, specialist classrooms, a general purpose hall, a PE hall, offices, a staff room, a library and ancillary spaces.

There will also be a hockey pitch with associated fencing, dugouts and floodlighting, six ball courts, landscaped gardens and external social space.

Permission was granted today by Laois County Council for a part-two storey and part-three storey school, with access from both the Timahoe/Well Road and the Portlaoise South Orbital Route.

The entrance off the south orbital road will lead to a car and bus set-down/drop-off area with 49 parking spaces, with a pedestrian and cycle route to the school.

Under the patronage of the Laois Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB), the Irish/English language, co-educational and multi-belief school is currently based in the old Portlaoise CBS, Vocational School and Sacred Heart NS buildings.