Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Far too many children spend too much of their time in portakabins or other temporary buildings attached to the side of national schools. Some children spend all their school lives in portakabins. It has been mentioned that it is not nice to teach in a portakabin, but one also has to think of the people being taught in these portakabins and what it is like for them.

The manner in which these children get to school and the near miss that occurred during the week in County Meath should be noted. I would associate a prefab building with being a fire trap, but not a bus. We must look at our ageing bus system, and we cannot let this debate go without making some form of reference to the matter. It is a major issue. We are seen to be one of the world forces in terms of our economy, yet we are not getting the basic matter of children at a national school, or the methods of transporting them there, right. It is becoming exceptionally dangerous as there have been three major incidents in the past 12 months, with two of them occurring in the same county. We should consider the issue.

Our planning has been poor, and this probably goes back a number of years. Nobody would have expected us to get to the pitch we now find ourselves at, but there is a significant onus on county councils, as they are allowing major housing developments without associated services and infrastructure. This infrastructure could be a shop, a place of worship or, in this case, a school. Where there are new housing developments and young couples, it follows naturally that there will be children of school age in a short few years afterwards.

County councils must get their act together in that respect. Health services should also play their part, using the births register. There should be co-operation in these matters and matters of future planning. This could be passed on to relevant Departments so that proper plans can be made, and developers would be obliged to make provision for these types of facilities on sites.

Another issue I wish to refer to is the difficulty in staffing. Staff numbers must be submitted to the Department by the previous 30 September, but this often affects a school in that it may lose a teacher for a critical year within that period. I will leave the issue at that.

I speak to many principal teachers and they tell me that they regret having applied for a principalship and having become a principal. This is tragic and a sad reflection on how the teaching profession is progressing. It reflects the frustrations felt on behalf of staff.

See this speech in context