Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle, as ucht cead a thabhairt dom an cheist thábhachtach seo a ardú. Tá brón orm nach bhfuil an tAire i láthair, ach cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, ar a laghad. This issue is one which will be repeated to the Minister of State by many living in my constituency of Dublin North and the wider area, including east Meath and many other areas regarded as being in the commuter belt for Dublin, which stretches far. When we met the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, on 20 July and signed an agreement between Fingal County Council and the Department of Education and Science, I thought we would see renewed vigour and delivery of results in the burgeoning towns and villages of my constituency.

I note with interest Deputy O'Shea's case, with which I agree wholeheartedly, on the need to upgrade Waterford Institute of Technology to university status. However, in Dublin North, the town of Swords has a population roughly equal to Waterford city. The people of the area seek decent secondary and primary school places. If we were to get university status for an institute of technology, we would not know what hit us we would be so delighted.

Can we deal with the basics and get them right? There is a real crisis in Dublin North and the wider area. In spite of the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child stating at Article 59 that governments should ensure budgetary allocations are also directed at improving and upgrading school buildings, recreational equipment and facilities, and sanitary conditions in schools, the UN Charter is sadly neglected in Dublin North. In Laytown, just north of the Meath border, the population in the school catchment area has quadrupled since 1996, as it has in my constituency, but no permanent classroom has been provided since 1979. Some 150 junior infants from Laytown are bused to Bellewstown.

The Minister of State will know of that issue from the media but similar issues exist in Dublin North. For example, the Balbriggan Educate Together national school accommodates many students from different social backgrounds. However, the poorer parents are discriminated against by Government policy because there is a requirement to pay 25% of the school's rent on the temporary buildings in that school. Therefore, €3,275 per annum must be raised by the school families and the children themselves, and that amount of money is not available to go towards necessary equipment and the maintenance of the school.

The Minister must take account of the needs of Balbriggan Educate Together national school. The school inspector published a report in April this year indicating its viability and the enrolments up to 2010 also indicate strong viability and, indeed, chronic overcrowding for the future. Despite this, the Government will not give the school the permanent status it needs. As a result, it is not able to get a minor works grant, which is only available for a permanent school, or have the rent paid on the six-room school. Therefore, not alone does the school have only a temporary building, which is very unsatisfactory, but it must pay through the nose, as if it was some kind of private operation instead of providing the most basic fundamental human right, namely, that children can expect primary education. Moreover, the school has no resource room.

When I see the reality, I have to believe there is no joined-up thinking in Government. I ask that it be addressed immediately. The school has been coming under pressure to expand to a 32-room facility. Why would the school take the Department on trust that this would not be an albatross around its neck, being left to try to provide when the Department is so slow in providing the basics for a smaller school? That could be a six-room or a 16-teacher school, as it was originally intended to be.

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