Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is deputising for the Minister, Deputy Quinn, today who is on Government business in London. I heard the Minister, who is a man for whom I have tremendous respect as a person and as a Minister, in the course of the opening of Adamstown library last year indicate that during the course of his tenure it was his intention to ensure that all children had a permanent building, a warm classroom, a chair and a desk. That is something I very much support. Even in the short time the Minister is in office he has made significant progress. In my constituency of Dublin Mid-West nine schools building projects have been approved, including extensions. I welcome the new schools, the campaigns for which have been ongoing for many years.

I wish to raise the issue of temporary accommodation. In advance of this Dáil session I discovered that the difficulty is that some of the schools in my area – I will stick to Lucan as the Minister of State referred to it in his reply – are at a less advanced stage of progression than was the case many years ago. Within a couple of hundred metres of the school to which the Minister of State referred, there are 13 prefabricated buildings in Archbishop Ryan junior and senior national schools. Many people in the community are at a loss as to why the school has not been prioritised. In the case of Esker junior and senior national schools there are 17 prefabricated buildings. Those schools in particular feel they have not progressed much in the intervening years. St. Mary’s national school in Lucan village is another such school.

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