Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to see that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is also dealing with education matters. On Monday night, in St. Angela's school in Cork, I attended one of the most aggressive and frustrated public meetings I have encountered in my nine years of public life. This school is not in my constituency but many of its pupils come from the south of the city. I know the principal well and am aware of the standing the school has in Cork city, despite the fact that its infrastructure is almost collapsing. There are 524 students in the school and a waiting list of more than 90 applicants because of the reputation it has attained as a consequence of its ethos, tradition and academic success.

The school was promised refurbishment funding eight years ago by the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin. There were some complications because the site is located on the side of St. Patrick's Hill in Cork. In addition, there was a requirement to extend the site into a convent next door to facilitate the refurbishment. Nevertheless, a delay of eight years is unacceptable.

Last April, a public meeting was called out of utter frustration that nothing was happening. Following that meeting, in the build up to the election, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, met the individuals concerned and gave a clear commitment that so long as the school management could iron out some technicalities, which it has now done comprehensively, the funding would be made available. Last Monday night, however, in the presence of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, and the Minister of State at that Department, Deputy Kelleher, the impression was given that funding may well be a problem in the short to medium term, despite the wait of more than eight years for basic refurbishment work. This is unacceptable.

Physical education classes in the school are held in a room that is 9% of the regulation size for a new school. It is not even as large as the floor area at the centre of this Chamber. Pupils and teachers are forced to use makeshift laboratories for science lessons. These are merely adjusted classrooms in which students are not allowed even to light bunsen burners because of the risk of fire in rooms that have not been equipped for that type of activity.

It is a school with a fantastic reputation but a hopeless infrastructure. Students, parents, teachers and the school management have been patient until now, but their anger was evident last Monday night, directed primarily at Government Deputies but also at Opposition politicians. They believe they have been led up the garden path on this issue and their anger was stronger than I have seen at any public meeting in recent times. I ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and National Resources to do what he can to encourage the Minister for Education and Science to prioritise this project.

Schools are developed and funded in Ireland if the Minister decides to prioritise a particular project. The bureaucracy and frustration experienced since the summer by the school management and parents' association in dealing with the Department has been extraordinary. Attempting to get basic agreement on a valuation of the site, for example, which the nuns in the convent are willing to sell to the Department, has been ongoing despite an independent valuation having taken place.

I am endeavouring to kick-start and push this project along so the next time there is an allocation of funds, this project may be moved from second to third stage in the eight-stage process of refurbishing or building a new school. We should see some progress in that effort the next time there is an allocation of funding for design and build programmes within secondary schools. I hope the Minister has some good news to take back to the school.

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