Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter, namely, the urgent need for the Minister for Education and Science to indicate her plans for the provision of a new community school in Glenamaddy, County Galway. The frustration felt by the board of management, parents, students and teachers has reached a level I have never before witnessed on an issue such as this. For the past seven years all of the partners in education in Glenamaddy have co-operated fully with the Minister and the Department in order to achieve an amalgamation of Coláiste Seosaimh and St. Benin's vocational school in the town. All of the community supported this move from the beginning and were promised a new school in return. The Department has denied a rural community the opportunity to survive.

Glenamaddy is located in a CLÁR area. Will the Minister and the Department further disadvantage the area by denying construction of the school? Planning for a new school was processed quickly when a site was identified and secured. The tendering process finally identified a contractor who was ready to start construction immediately. Five years have passed and the patience of the board of management, parents, teachers and students has been exhausted. What other community would tolerate a divided campus for a school? One section of the school is a mile away on the other side of the village which presents a serious danger from traffic for students who travel from one part of the school to the other. Educationally, students are losing out on classroom time and teacher contact.

The school has one science laboratory and six science teachers. So much for the Department's commitment to the improvement of science teaching in schools. The school has one home economics room and three home economics teachers. Construction studies are held one mile away from the main school. PE facilities are totally inadequate. The list goes on. Is that satisfactory in the eyes of the Minister? Are these facilities good enough for a school in County Galway? Why are students in Glenamaddy disadvantaged in this way? It is unacceptable that students currently in the school have to receive an education without proper facilities for all their second level education in this school, while others in leafy south Dublin, for example, have a state-of-the-art school with proper facilities. Is this equity in education?

It is of little use for the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, to tell me tonight of the resources that are being spent by the Government on the construction of new schools. Nearly all the expenditure for 2008 will be spent in the Dublin and east coast area that was prioritised. According to the Minister:

Approximately €600 million be spent this year on school buildings. This is an unprecedented level of capital investment...This investment will facilitate the provision of new schools and extensions in developing areas and the improvement of existing schools...The progression of all large-scale building projects from initial design stage through to construction phase is considered on an ongoing basis...[The] Department is committed to providing a new community school for Glenamaddy at the earliest possible date.

We have heard this jargon coming from the Department time and again. What we want to hear tonight is a date when the new school will commence.

I urge the Minister to immediately sanction the funding for this school so that the work can begin on the much-needed facilities. Planning permission for the original school will run out in approximately six months' time. The Minister should honour the promises that were given at the time the amalgamation agreement was made seven years ago. The priority that has been given solely to the east coast must be spread to the rest of the country. I hope that Glenamaddy will be prioritised at this stage.

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