Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I thank the Minister for allowing me to raise this matter. I assume the Minister is not coming into the House to deal with it. If anything symbolises the failure of this Government, it is the scandal of Kill national school. After ten years of this incompetent Government and four Fianna Fáil Ministers for Education and Science, no progress has been achieved.

Kill national school is still situated virtually on a traffic island in the middle of a motorway. It is grossly overcrowded and there is a waiting list of children who cannot get a school place. Mr. Tom Cunnane, the excellent principal, is besieged by angry parents and he is taking flak which should be directed at the Minister for Education and Science. He is left carrying the can for the Government's repeated and long-standing failure to honour its undertakings to the people of Kill.

I pay tribute to Mr. Cunnane and his staff for doing an excellent job for the children of Kill despite the difficulties they face, which the Minister has failed to remove. I know the Minister was acutely aware of the situation in Kill during the by-election in Kildare North and in case she has been distracted by other matters, I will refresh her memory. The school was built in 1951 and caters for a population of 4,000. It consists of the old building and numerous — at least ten — prefab classrooms. It has no PE room, no staff room and very little usable playground. In 2000, the Minister decided that a new school was to be built in the town. Since then nothing has been done by the Minister to achieve that objective.

Through the efforts of the principal, a local landowner and Kildare County Council, an agreement has now been reached on acquiring a site for a new school. The site will be legally transferred to the Department of Education and Science very shortly. On 1 March 2006, I raised this matter on the Adjournment and the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, responded with a solemn undertaking to build the school ten months after acquiring the site. She also said she would use the interim to establish the size of the school required and said, in September 2006, that a 32-class new school had been agreed.

She has again reneged on her undertakings. Her Department's website is now advertising for the new school and the following is taken from the expressions of interest notice:

The project will entail the construction of a new primary school comprising between 24 and 32 classrooms plus associated ancillary accommodation and site works. The new build accommodation will total somewhere between 3,600 sq. m. and 4,550 sq. m. The definite scope of the project, i.e. the number of classrooms to be provided, will be decided by the client, namely the Minister, shortly. Candidates should be aware that this accommodation is required by September 2009.

I was thunderstruck when I read that notice and could not believe that the Minister would mislead the House and the parents and teachers of Kill in such a barefaced manner. Not only has she not decided on the size of the school, contradicting what she told the Dáil on 1 March 2006, she has now abandoned the ten-month building period and has pushed the project into 2009 or beyond.

The Minister needs to explain herself to the House. I call on her to stand by her early undertakings and her promises to Kill school and its people. She must instruct her officials to act accordingly as nothing less will be acceptable. Kill wants its school ten months after it gets the site, as she promised.

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