Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

All of that is excellent and that community spirit has always been a feature of life in Tyrrelstown. I am glad the Minister has had an opportunity to experience it. Does the Minister understand, however, what it means for a school with 650 children to have to organise six breaks a day? That has to be done because the Department of Education and Skills and the local county council have not been able to sort out the identified strip of land that everybody agrees would allow both schools, and St. Luke's in particular, to have a play area.

The Minister may need to send out an official to take photographs or I will take photographs and send them to the Minister. I am referring to something eminently fixable. I know the Minister wants to be hands-on and he can help fix this problem. What the school is enduring is intolerable. Many of the rooms inside are heavily fenced off. The Minister knows that. It is a difficult scenario for teachers and pupils.

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