Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My question is on the provision of physical education facilities in schools. I welcome the introduction of physical education as a leaving certificate subject. I find it remarkable, however, that not one request by a secondary school to build or operate a sports hall has been approved. How is a school expected to deliver PE at leaving certificate level on an equal footing with another school if it simply does not have a PE hall? A school in my constituency, Dublin–Rathdown, opened its doors in 1980 but, almost 40 years later, it still does not have a PE hall. How many second-level schools do not have PE halls? I have asked this question before. I do not get a direct answer to parliamentary questions. I am told that if a school does not have a hall, there are facilities for it in the community. The school in my constituency is a DEIS school and it cannot afford to hire a bus to go to a community centre or swimming pool. It should not have to use part of its double period of 80 minutes to do that. It is not putting the school on a level footing with others.

I presume that, in the pilot programme the Department is running with 80 schools, at least one school with no PE hall is included so the Department can monitor and evaluate the fairness of the system. How is it fair that schools do not have PE halls? How will that work in terms of rolling out the new PE subject? Has one of the schools with no PE facilities been chosen for the pilot programme so that it might be evaluated? This needs to be done in order to ensure the fairness of the system. I just do not know how it works. It is not fair on teachers or students.