Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

As the Minister knows, I represent the Dublin Mid-West constituency. It is one of the rapidly-growing areas of the country and this will continue as another 25,000 houses are to be built there in the next decade. A large number of new schools have opened in the constituency over the last few years. Last September three new schools opened thanks to the Adamstown SDZ planning scheme which required them to be built. However, the schools were not opened because of the demand in Adamstown — only a couple of hundred houses were occupied when they opened — but for existing needs. In September another school is to open in the constituency in Clonburris. This is to be one of the new "flat pack" schools where a building will be installed, fully built, before September. I will be very interested to see that.

I want to raise the issue of the underfunding of new schools. Today somebody told me that 34 new schools are to open next year. I do not know if that is correct. These will be much bigger than schools used to be. They are often emergency schools. There are new, unsettled communities. Many children and parents who apply to these schools do not speak English. The schools face queues of people trying to enrol their children. Although these schools are not in designated areas of disadvantage, they have high levels of disadvantage and face many challenges. The schools are being built much faster than before, which is welcome. However, one school in my constituency has been in a prefab for approximately 14 years and is still waiting for a school building that was promised in the last two elections.

When the Adamstown schools were about to open in September, as was reported on RTE, they had already run out of funds. New schools receive a start-up grant of €6,348.67. There is no more funding until they receive their capitation grants in January. This money is to cover expenses such as photocopiers, computers and advertising for staff. It is supposed to cover the equipping of classrooms or secretarial or cleaning services. Some people would spend €6,000 on doing up a modest kitchen, yet the same amount is given for setting up a new school.

Schools receive the same start-up grant whether they have one or 12 classrooms. I was informed today that the real start-up cost of a new school would come to €50,000 if it was to be done properly. Providing a secretary, equipping an office, buying a photocopier, etc., would quickly use up the €6,000. Then one would need €3,000 per room to equip each classroom as a primary school classroom should be equipped. A seven-classroom school could need €21,000 to equip the classrooms and whatever one would spend on the basic fitting up of the school, the staff room, etc.

The Adamstown schools were in dire straits and had to plead with the Department of Education and Science to have 50% of their capitation grants paid in advance, which they used for their set-up costs. They also got their ancillary services grants of €8,000 paid in advance to cover expenses such as secretarial and cleaning costs. How could one possibly pay the wages of a secretary and a cleaner out of that? The schools funded their start-up costs from the capitation grants and will be in dire straits next September because they have used money meant for day-to-day running costs for setting up the school and preparing it for opening. The capitation fee is not enough in itself, without it being used for start-up costs. Those schools will always be behind unless the Minister changes their funding. They will always be waiting for the next grant.

Why is there a smaller capitation grant for a primary school pupil than for a secondary school pupil? It is more costly to equip a classroom for a primary school student, and we all know how important it is to have a good start through primary education. Other established schools in my area must raise €15,000 per annum. They have three big fund-raisers every year and they are relentlessly fund-raising. The parents in my area all have to commute to work and suffer the pressures of living in a developing community without much money. As one parent said in the IPPN survey, they are basically buying cakes from each other to fund their kids' education. There is no speech therapy service in one of the disadvantaged schools in my area and the parents may have to fund-raise in order to pay for it.

The Minister should fund education properly and teachers, parents and children should not have to raise funds for primary education.

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