P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise an issue vital to the future of the children of Kinsale. On behalf of the 762 pupils on the roll of Kinsale community school, I ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the timetable for the completion of the proposed extension for their school.

The school's existing building was designed for 460 pupils and completed in 1996. From the day it opened, it accommodated more than 500 pupils and the school management had to convert the stage into an art room and the art room into a woodwork room. The school is now short of classrooms for biology, woodwork, metalwork, art, music and technical drawing and graphics. It also requires a gym.

There are no canteen facilities to cater for its current enrolment of 762 pupils. Kinsale is regarded as the gourmet capital of Ireland and this sector offers good employment prospects in the local economy. There is but one small home economics classroom. If the Government's primary aim is to create employment, it is going about it the wrong way.

My information is that over two years ago departmental officials agreed that the school needed to be doubled in size and predicted that school would have to cater for 850 pupils. The school's management was told that a design team would be appointed in the third quarter of this year but we are now in the fourth quarter. Miraculously this morning, after this matter was selected for the Adjournment debate, the building unit in the Department of Education and Skills contacted the school to arrange a meeting for next Tuesday to discuss the implications of appointing a design team. Is this a new bureaucratic hurdle to be passed before the Department keeps its promise to appoint a design team in the third quarter of this year?

The former Minister for Education and Science visited the school when two pupils, John D. O'Callaghan and Liam McCarthy, won the European Competition for Young Scientists, having already won the Irish Young Scientist competition with their project on testing milk quality. The Minister will recall that three years earlier in 2006 another Kinsale community school pupil, Aisling Judge, won the Irish Young Scientist competition with a project on food hygiene.

In January 2008, I visited the school with my party leader, Deputy Kenny, who was very impressed with the excellent service it provides to the community in Kinsale despite the cramped conditions in which it must operate. I ask for a completion date for the sake of the 762 pupils of the school. The school provides services for the whole community of Kinsale six days per week from early in the morning to late every evening. I am told that the school is not allowed to replace its second caretaker, who retired during the summer, even though it is operating at double capacity. I ask that an exemption be made in this case.

How would the Department fare if we had an education quality standards authority that was similar to Health Information and Quality Authority? This school is overcrowded in every classroom and corridor. It is unhealthy for its children to be confined to one classroom from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon, especially on wet days. The school is operating at nearly twice its design capacity. On health and safety grounds I ask that its application be prioritised and completed as a matter of urgency. Schools projects are delayed for many reasons but in the present environment of building costs it might opportune to prioritise this project and finish at least one school project ahead of schedule. This school has proved itself to be an excellent provider for all its pupils and its community but it needs the space to house all its pupils and to give them a good start in life. It does not need further bureaucratic delays. I ask that the extension be built without delay.

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