Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing Deputy Carey and me to raise this important matter in the House. When our spokesperson on education and science, Deputy Brian Hayes, recently visited Ennis national school at our invitation, he was appalled at what he saw. This school was declared by the INTO in 2003 as substandard on health and safety grounds. Little has changed in the intervening five years. Located at a very dangerous junction, it is more like a concentration camp in appearance than the capital town's primary place of education for its children. It is a nightmare, with 16 prefabs littered all over the yard. A musty smell greets one at the entrance and the flat roof leaks with every downpour. These are Third World conditions indeed.

Children and teachers are forced to battle all types of weather to access their classes. I do not know how the principal, Gary Stack, his teachers and pupils put up with this situation. The Department's school buildings programme is a shambles. This school was originally built in 1971-2 as a 16 classroom school with 40 teachers. The population of Ennis increased from 1996 to 2006 at twice the rate of that of the country as a whole and now stands at 28,704. If this rate of increase continues there will be 38,000 people living in Ennis by 2015. In the Ennis area alone, there are more than 70 prefabs in use, which is a disgrace. The Department is spending €35 million on rent for temporary accommodation while conditions at schools like Ennis national school are deteriorating fast. In February this year, permission was sought and obtained from the Department for two new teachers at the school. However, the Minister is refusing to fund the €300 weekly payment required to provide a shared prefab to accommodate the teachers. The reason given for not funding the prefab is "the school has not shown an accommodation need." The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, should come down from his ivory tower in Dublin and visit Ennis national school and see if he could work in these conditions. The penny-pinching of his Department means that these two teachers are forced to work in the school corridors. This would not happen even in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The Department's copy book is blotted.

The Minister has no plan, no direction and no ideas. One arm of his Department does not know what the other is doing. Earlier this year, the Department finally advertised in the European journal for a design team. The following day it advised the school that the project would not be going ahead. On Wednesday, 25 June next, parents will withdraw their children from the school in protest at the conditions. They are totally frustrated at the lack of action. A greenfield site is available with zoning and access road infrastructure guaranteed by the diocese and Clare County Council. Additional lands have been provided by the diocese for the provision of two playing fields. Successive Ministers during the past 20 years have done nothing but a sticker and plaster job at Ennis national school, with no effect. It is time the current Minister put in place the foundation blocks for a new school. I appeal to the Minister to take urgent action to address the situation at Ennis national school. There is an urgent need for the Minister to act.

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