Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the opportunity to raise the matter of another school in a different part of the country on the Adjournment this evening. My contribution deals with the national school in Creeslough, which is probably one of the most picturesque little villages in my constituency. It is situated on the N56 between Letterkenny and Dunfanaghy. On one side of the village is the majestic mountain of Creeslough, which the Minister is probably familiar with as it is in a part of the country he frequents. On the other side of the village is the broad Atlantic.

This nice little town is the birthplace of "The Girl from Donegal", who is probably a past pupil of the school, the well-known and much-loved Bridie Gallagher. It has also been immortalised in verse and song by the great Percy French, and I am sure some present are familiar with the beautiful melody "They are Cutting the Corn around Creeslough Today". I am here to deal with the matter of Scoil Mhuire in Creeslough.

The school was built in 1959 as a three-teacher school. In 1976 a further two classrooms were added to the building and since then, little or no work has been carried out on the fabric of the school. This leaves the existing building completely inadequate for present day curriculum demands.

The school now has to accommodate seven staff, including five regular teachers, a learning support teacher and a home-school liaison officer. All the classes are being taken in five old-fashioned and dated classrooms. The board of management, staff and parents are very concerned at the lack of basic facilities for the pupils of Scoil Mhuire. They urgently want to have the existing classrooms modernised to concur with present day standards and requirements.

A general purpose room, a necessity for all such schools, is required, along with extra standard facilities such as an office, a staff room, secretarial accommodation and a sports hall. The Creeslough community has already raised a local contribution in excess of €60,000 for the project, an indication of its commitment to the project.

An application for these absolutely necessary facilities has been with the Department for some time. Meanwhile, the pupils and teachers of Scoil Mhuire are endeavouring to do their best in conditions that do not meet modern standards of accommodation for national schools.

This evening I am appealing to the Minister to give their application her immediate attention and grant this project the highest priority. We simply cannot afford to wait year after year with the young pupils of Creeslough being deprived of these basic requirements. The people of Creeslough have done their bit and it is now up to the Minister for Education and Science to respond positively to their just demands.

I trust the Minister for Communications, Energy and National Resources, who is deputising for the Minister for Education and Science, will contact his Cabinet colleague and impress upon her the urgency of dealing with this school, which has been waiting for funding for so long. I know when the Minister visits Donegal in the near future, he will certainly earn some credit if the project is complete.

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