Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputy Paul McGrath.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for permitting me to raise on the Adjournment the important issue of Dysart national school. A brief history of the situation is as follows. The school was approved for a grant of €350,000, the maximum granted under the 2004 small schools initiative, to construct a new school to service a large geographical area. The old school in Dysart was condemned as far back as 1999 — both I and Deputy Paul McGrath raised the issue many years ago — thus the need for this school to progress without further procrastination or delay.

The awarding of the grant under the scheme was vigorously and enthusiastically embraced by the board of management and, initially, two estimates were sought and they amounted to €350,000 to €390,000. By the time the tender was submitted in early January 2005, the best tender was €460,000 and together with professional fees the total cost for the erection of new modern school which would meet the needs of the young pupils attending the school and the staff, together with the ancillary facilities required, was in the order of €500,000.

Obviously, when the grant of €350,000 is taken into account, this leaves a shortfall of €150,000 which, in essence, is too onerous a burden for a small community to bear. While the small schools initiative may not have intended to leave schools with significant fundraising needs, that is the situation in which this small community of Dysart finds itself.

The planning guidelines for primary schools issued by the Minister's Department clearly indicated that the board of management was not free to tailor the scope of capital works despite what some of the officials state. Indeed, on the contrary, the board of management in Dysart felt constrained to work within those guidelines. As a result, the school designed is based on a two classroom school plan produced by the Department's architects.

Despite assertions by the Department to the contrary, there was no statement specifying three classrooms — its representative was told that approval was to build a two teacher unit. On 22 March 2005, an official from the Department was presented with a copy of the plans with a written request to meet the board of management. Further requests for meetings were submitted on 25 April 2005 and 15 September 2005 and both I and Deputy Paul McGrath raised the matter in the House subsequently.

It should be noted that in July 2005, €245,000, or approximately 70% of the original grant, was released to the school which would surely indicate approval and sanction for the two classroom school as planned. The matter has been through the appeals process. Both I and Deputy Paul McGrath tried very hard to get a positive result. We were extremely disappointed with the nature and tenor of the reply which referred the matter back to the school planning section. It was stated that the building project was unlikely to meet the long-term accommodation needs. Ultimately, the appeals board decided the school did not warrant additional funding to everybody's great surprise.

The Minister is aware that of the €150,000 shortfall, a significant amount of it arises as a result of the need for the school board to comply with the planning conditions set down by the planning authority. I understand a copy of the consultant engineer's assessment of the additional costs associated with that have been furnished to the Department.

The Minister should give the additional money required to deal with the extra costs which are clearly outside the control of the school authorities and were not set down by them. The accepted tender price to erect the school represents exceedingly good value. It is of paramount importance that the additional grant aid of €150,000 is provided to this small community.

On 24 November, the school met the Department but it received a point blank refusal. The delays have forced the children and teachers of Dysart to endure another year in an unfit building which was condemned as long ago as 1999. In January this year, the boys' toilet had to be closed due to a leaking roof so boys and girls must now share one toilet. The roof is also leaking rain water into the corridor on top of the ESB fuse box area.

Time is of the essence. If there is a lot of money to give out and if we are facilitating all sorts of developments and initiatives, surely a school is the first place to start and €150,000 is small bread to ensure comforts for teachers and pupils in this area.

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