Mr. Liam Burke:

Whitecross School is situated 8 km south of Drogheda. In 2002 I began as school principal in Whitecross. We had six teachers and 171 pupils at that time. There are now more than 430 pupils and 23 teachers. House building projects were beginning in the Julianstown and south Drogheda area by 2004. Our numbers were rising and it was evident that with four suitable classrooms and two unsuitable classrooms our school would need to get on the building ladder. Between 2004 and up to the present the board and I have highlighted the very unsatisfactory working conditions for staff and pupils. We have met and written to several public representatives. We have met with two education Ministers. We have lobbied and lobbied, but we still do not have our building.

As for the present conditions, there are 26 external doors on our collection of buildings.Anyone has open access to the school, from a very busy main road; the school cannot be locked down.

On three occasions rats - not mice - were caught within school buildings. I personally dispatched one on the latest occasion, which occurred in the least suitable prefab block on the campus, during class time in a bathroom between two classrooms. An even more serious incident occurred last year when a storage heater fell off a wall in first class, in the same classroom. This happened just after the children left the room. The heater weighs some 200 kg.

Continual maintenance and IT issues have to be addressed. Heating bills are astronomical as each prefab has its own system with no central control. There is ad hocwiring in most classrooms to cater for increased IT and system needs. We are in limbo when it comes to upgrading or even maintaining school facilities as we are continually expecting the project to begin. The board cannot justify spending funds on upgrades for a building that is due to be revamped. Pupils and teachers often have to go to classrooms in wet or cold weather for classes. This is particularly the case for special needs pupils. In fact, I feel pupils and staff in Whitecross can justifiably feel discriminated against in comparison to pupils and staff in all other schools in our locality.

There is no formal staff room; we use a learning support room during break which has to cater for up to 30 staff in a room of 20 square metres. Neither is there a formal meeting room for teachers, parents, social workers or inspectors.

Of the 16 classrooms in the school I deem only four suitable to deliver the present national curriculum for primary schools.

We pride ourselves on success in sport at Whitecross, yet we do not have any indoor facilities appropriate to delivering the PE curriculum. This was a particular issue during the very poor weather in recent months.

Several neighbouring schools were completed in the past ten years within 10.km of Drogheda, including Stamullen national school, Donacarney Boys and Girls, Duleek Boys and Girls, Scoil an Bradán Feasa, Le Chéile in Mornington, St. Mary’s Parish primary school and Scoil Oilibhéir Naofa in Bettystown, to name a few. Some of the above schools did not exist when we were originally approved as a major building project. All bar two were behind us on any building ladder, if such a thing exists. It seems to have escaped Department officials that the board was tasked with assessing and picking a design team in 2008 for a building project, only for all communication with DES officials from Whitecross to be ignored for months on end. Eventually we found this project was parked due to the recession. One would imagine that our project would then be fast-tracked for round two, but this has not been the case.

The harder the board and I worked to get the project off the ground the less progress we seemed to make. In November 2016 the design team met in Tullamore. The meeting began with a senior Department official criticising Whitecross board members for sharing the history of the schools’ endeavours to get the project off the ground with local politicians. The board members present found these comments unacceptable and out of order, but we kept quiet in order not to cause further delay to the project. We have ten prefabs, six of which cost the state €80,000 per annum. The total cost of temporary accommodation to date is over €1.5 million. The initial price projection for this project in 2011 was €2.9 million. Currently the estimated cost is €5.7 million, due to the delay, and I am sure the spend will double before completion.

In March, Whitecross hosted 24 teachers from Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Norway. I was embarrassed having to show these teachers the conditions our pupils and teachers have to put up with, given that Ireland is supposed to be one of the wealthier EU countries, and the fact that all these European teachers worked in much safer and more fit for purpose schools than we do.

All the recent talk in education circles is Children First. As far as I can see it, children are put last in Whitecross School. What difference will my attendance make in progressing the project that our pupils and teachers deserve?