Dáil debates

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

7:00 pm

Photo of Olivia MitchellOlivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

That is nonsense and it means nothing. It is utterly frustrating for schools. Recently, the answers have become more frustrating, referring to the economic climate, budgetary constraints and the need for responsible spending. The suggestion seems to be that looking for spending and classrooms for children is somehow profligate and irresponsible and that we are feckless spendthrifts to suggest it. If the Government thinks spending on education is feckless, there is no hope for the future. This spending is vital investment in our future productive stream and is precisely the kind of investment our new Taoiseach said would be given priority in the new economic climate. We have less money but what could be more important use than spending money on our children? As parents, no matter how hard times get and how little money we have, we prioritise our children and expect the Government to do the same. It is shameful and short-sighted to do anything less.

In St. Colmcille's, Knocklyon, one of the biggest schools in the country is about to lose a teacher in September. Some 500 children are taught in prefabs that are so old and dilapidated that their condition cannot even be maintained. I thought about the terrible conditions of the hedge schools of old but they did not have the class sizes of today nor the challenges teachers must face today.

In Divine Word, Rathfarnham, there are three sets of isolated prefabs with no commitment to build although one was given before the election. Now, three junior infants classes must be merged with two senior infants classes. This is taking place all over the constituency. So much for a reduced pupil-teacher ratio — the opposite is happening.

The situation is outrageous at Our Lady's Grove. It got the go-ahead through the stages of planning, up to having planning permission, but now it is told the project cannot go to tender. Two teachers who retired from the school recently spent their entire teaching careers in pre-fabs. The conditions of these schools are sub-optimal from a learning point of view. Even if the promise to decrease the pupil-teacher ratio was to be kept, they have no meeting rooms or, in many cases, PE facilities. Cloakrooms and toilets are being converted to facilitate meetings, breaks and special needs supports. Small prefabs are being partitioned off into even smaller inadequate spaces. This is the stuff of the Third World.

Holy Trinity national primary school in Stepaside, a newly developing area in my constituency, is now entering its fourth year in prefabs. It has spent more than €1 million already on prefabs and site works for prefabs. This is money down the drain. Parents will not commit to a school that has not received a commitment in regard to a school building and has been told not to apply for planning permission.

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