Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

A Cheann Comhairle, I am pleased that you are presiding over this debate, because I may have to call on you for clarification before I am finished. I have been raising this issue for many years. I came across a parliamentary question only this morning that I tabled on 21 February 2001, when the then Minister for Education and Science stated that it was his intention to make a decision on how to address the future primary and post-primary requirements at Portlaoise "as early as possible". There has been much water under many bridges since then.

In June 2008, I secured a special Adjournment debate on the matter. I informed the Minister that the school accommodation issue in Portlaoise had become a fiasco. I told him that Scoil Bhríd in Knockmay was beginning to resemble a prefab shanty town. The parents of almost 100 children had informed me that they had no school place for their children the following September. I asked the Minister to visit Portlaoise with his officials and see the crisis for themselves. That did not happen. The Minister stated that approval in principle had been given for three large-scale primary building projects in Portlaoise, which will improve conditions for the schools concerned and provide much needed extra school places.

I am not sure if the Minister of State was watching "Prime Time" earlier this week. If he was, he would have been embarrassed to see himself parroting the exact same statement that his senior Minister had given me some months prior to that. I am tired of this set piece, word-processed answer from officials, who hand them on to Ministers who then come in here to parrot out the same drivel about Portlaoise. It does not address the problem and it does not realise the extent of the difficulties.

There are three school projects to be undertaken as a matter of urgency. The Minister told me that progress on these proposed works is being considered on an ongoing basis. A parliamentary question in my name on 4 March 2009 revealed that the Minister has no idea how many prefabs are on site in Laois schools. In fact, he misled the House. Rath national school is listed as having one prefab, but it has three. The Heath national school is listed as having three prefabs, but it has five. Scoil Bhríd in Knockmay, Portlaoise was listed as having seven prefabs, but it has 24, nine of which are rented. If parliamentary questions are going to be treated in such a cavalier manner by the Department of Education and Science, then this House is in need of reform. Ministers can come in here and not give a damn about the nature of their replies to lawfully elected Deputies.

The reply last week stated that the average cost of renting the 58 prefabs in Laois of which the Department is aware works out at €13,835 per prefab per year, which totals €802,000. However, this is wrong because the cost of renting prefabs in Rath national school is €15,600 per prefab per year. I got a response from the Minister stating "now that the accommodation requirements of the town at post-primary level are well on their way to being addressed, it is proposed to deal with the primary school requirements". I have no doubt I will get the same line tonight. This line was contained in official replies on 12 February and 4 June 2008.

In the school at Knockmay, 75% of the 600 pupils are in prefabs. The nine rented prefabs are costing €125,000 per annum, or €10,000 per month. Rath national school has doubled in size since 2000, and one child in three is being taught in a prefab. In order to address the issue, the parish priest of Portlaoise put forward an imaginative and innovative proposal that was shot down by the Department. The parish agreed to take out a bank loan to finance the new schools and allow the Government repay the loan over a period of 15 years, but that was turned down by the Department.

Deputies in this House cannot even get accurate replies from the Minister for Education and Science on the numbers and cost of prefabs and the number of children being taught in prefabs. This is a town that has experienced rapid growth in the years of the Celtic tiger, yet no school provision has been made for these children. It was a fiasco a year ago, but it is now a very grave problem. I hope that the Minister of State will address this issue and not give me the same response that he and his predecessors have been giving me in this House since February 2001. Nobody in the Department is in control.

I wish to discuss with the Ceann Comhairle how the record is to be set straight and how the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, can give information to the House which is highly inaccurate, wholly unsatisfactory and at variance with the facts.

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