Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to raise this important issue. It concerns a school in Ballygarvan, outside Cork city, that was promised a new school building ten years ago this month by the then Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin. There have been five other Ministers since then but the school is still waiting. It has not even reached the stage of a site being purchased. This is extremely frustrating for the children, their parents, the school principal and the teachers.

At present, there are 265 pupils in the school. There are two permanent classrooms and eight prefabs. The site is just over half an acre and is full to capacity. There is no room to put any more prefabs on it. A site for a new school has been identified. It is in three parcels and the Department of Education and Science is fully aware of the details about purchasing it. Recently, it asked the diocese to purchase the site, which the diocese is willing to do if it gets an assurance from the Minister and the Department that a school will be built on it. The diocese does not wish to be left with a site and no school on it. The Department should be the driving force on this matter but it has failed to act.

The situation at the school has now become more urgent. At a recent meeting, the school principal informed the parents of 19 children that the school would be unable to accept their children next year. The school is at a stage where it can only accommodate siblings of the pupils in the school. Children who are living next door to the school, therefore, cannot be accommodated. There is no space on the site for additional classrooms. If the Department would ensure that the other site was purchased, perhaps that problem could be resolved.

The situation at the school has reached a crisis. It is in a rapidly developing area and in the past few weeks Cork County Council gave permission for the construction of 144 additional housing units in the village of Ballygarvan. One can readily estimate how many children will have to be accommodated in a school that is still on a waiting list for site purchase. This is an urgent problem, particularly for the 19 children who have been told there is no place for them in the school next year. They will not be going to school with their neighbours or friends in the locality. Instead, it appears they will have to seek school placements outside the village.

This matter is in the Minister's hands. He can act to ensure that the site is purchased and that the project moves to design stage immediately. It is in his interest and, more importantly, in the interests of the children in the school and their stressed teachers and principal.

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