Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his kindness in allowing me to raise this issue. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Brian Lenihan. This Minister of State has shown a great interest in Tallaght and I hope he will understand the issue my colleague, Deputy Crowe, and I — neighbours in Springfield — raise is of great concern. Each time I speak here I mention my constituency and Tallaght. I am not afraid to say I live in the Springfield-Raheen area.

The issue I raise is a problem for my community but we want to deal with it positively. The presence of so many international children has a positive effect while at same time it puts much pressure on the resources of St. Mark's junior and senior schools. We are pleading that the schools be considered as special cases and provided with the required resources. I said last night that these schools were opened in 1973. I was present on that Saturday when the then Minister for Education, Mr. Richard Burke, opened it. It was also the day President Childers died. The schools have had a great history and have done a tremendous job. My sons were educated there. It has always provided a great service and it is still a great school. The local Deputies attended a meeting with the Irish National Teachers' Organisation representatives recently, which was held in Springfield school. The school has always held a place in the hearts of the people of Tallaght.

It is significant that both Deputy Crowe and I are raising an issue in a positive manner about a problem causing difficulty in our area. Deputy Crowe and I in our contributions have highlighted that St. Mark's junior and senior schools have pupils from 32 countries, from Angola, Albania, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, China, Cameroon, Congo, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, England, India, Ireland — thank God, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, the Philippines, Russia, Romania, Somalia, South Africa, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Vietnam.

I have listed the countries because it is important to put the situation into perspective. The Acting Chairman has often spoken eloquently in this Chamber about the pressures on teachers and schools, which have been present since the time of my generation and are still present today. I ask the House to imagine 700 children in a school in an area that, as Deputy Crowe stated, is quite close to significant pockets of disadvantage and where the teachers, other staff and the pupils are under pressure.

I ask the Minister of State to make the case for us in the Department that special attention needs to be paid to this school. St. Mark's junior and senior schools are quite unique. This is the message from Springfield. It was great to see the Minister of State in our parish recently. I invite him as the Minister of State with responsibility for children to come to Springfield in the near future. We will be happy to greet him. It would be good for him as Minister of State with special responsibility for children to see the positive work being done in these schools in Springfield and to help us solve the problems on behalf of the teachers.

I pay a warm tribute to the principals of those schools who with their staff are doing a tremendous job in coping with the difficulties we have outlined. It is a tremendous school and facility for the local area but they have problems and particular challenges relating to the presence of so many international children. I hope the Department will examine the situation. I ask the Minister of State to use his influence to ask the Minister for Education and Science to send inspectors to the schools. The Department's inspectors have never visited Springfield to examine this problem relating to international children.

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