Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to raise this important matter concerning Scoil Mhuire in Buncrana, County Donegal, on the Inishowen peninsula. Scoil Mhuire is one of four secondary schools in the Inishowen peninsula. That may sound like a lot of schools for one part of a county or constituency but the Inishowen peninsula is bigger than County Louth. That is an indication of the geography we are dealing with and given the projected increases in population, there will be a need for the retention of these four secondary schools in their current form.

Based on 2003 figures, 860 people — 60 staff and 800 students — have to work in an environment which can only cater for 600 people. That is not appropriate from an education or a health and safety point of view. The board of management and the principal have been lobbying for a long time to try to get an extension to this school. A total of 25% of the students spend their time in 13 prefabricated buildings. That is not appropriate from an education viewpoint but it is also not a satisfactory environment in terms of the ambitious new programmes the school is challenging itself with, be it in the area of technology or different types of learning. An indication of the problem we are dealing with is the fact that some of the prefabs date back to the 1960s.

The application for funding was submitted eight years ago and the school authority would like to know the stage of the project. What is the Department of Education and Science's track in terms of the band rating it has been assigned? The most recent figure given was 2.5, which the Minister of State will probably give me now. I want to highlight the fact that this is an excellent school with an ambitious principal and board of management. They want to continue with the type of learning they are engaged in, especially given that it is a disadvantaged area where they have very high retention records. They want to be positive in terms of working with the Department. They do not want to take a negative view. They are willing to work closely with the Minister and the Minister of State present.

I will continue to raise this issue during my time in this House. I look forward to a favourable response from the Minister of State. Unlike the Seanad, I realise I cannot ask a supplementary question in this House. I see the Ceann Comhairle's head nodding in agreement with me. There was great flexibility in the Seanad when it came to supplementary questions. We do not have that facility here and I suppose I will get a prepared reply. Irrespective of the type of process used in this House, I want the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, to feed this back to the Minister, Deputy Hanafin.

I look forward to working with the Minister of State on this issue, to expedite it and to put in place a proper education environment for students who do not have one. Even from a health and safety point of view, they have been compromised in the past, albeit in a small manner. We certainly cannot compromise students or staff in terms of health and safety. This should be expedited and treated as a matter of urgency and I look forward to a firm commitment from the Minister of State today on the matter.

As I began hastily, I forgot to congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, on his new position and I wish him all the best in it.

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