North Cork Community Special School in Carrignavar is due to open on August 27.
A purpose-built wastewater treatment system is being installed to ensure a new special school in Cork can open on schedule next week.
The Department of Education confirmed the measure is being put in place after Uisce Éireann declined to connect the school to the overloaded local sewerage system.
The North Cork Community Special School in Carrignavar is due to open on August 27. Concerns had been raised about the opening date after it emerged the local wastewater treatment plant was operating beyond capacity.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deemed the sewage treatment plant to be “biologically and hydraulically overloaded”. The Department of Education declined three times to confirm the school would open on time.
The EPA confirmed that it has an open compliance investigation into Uisce Éireann’s management of wastewater in Carrignavar.
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has instigated separate legal proceedings against the utility for what it called “alleged deleterious discharges to the Cloghnagashee River” at the end of July.
The special school’s new premises is in a refurbished former primary school, and a key planning condition states it cannot be connected to the public wastewater network without prior approval from Uisce Éireann.
The school will cater for 36 children, aged between four and 18, who all have autism and mild or moderate learning difficulties.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said it had taken “the prudent approach of installing a local wastewater management system on the school site”.
“This is currently being installed and will be operational before the school opens,” they said. “No wastewater will be discharged into the townland’s wastewater system until full agreement has been reached with Uisce Éireann.”
They added that the school will open next week as planned.
As one of five new special schools across Ireland announced in November 2024 for the 2025/26 school year, its opening in Carrignavar was postponed last September. The school instead began operating from temporary accommodation in Fermoy.
Carrignavar is about 16km from Cork City and, according to the 2022 census, has a population of 563.
Sewerage capacity has been a recurring issue in the village over the past decade.
