Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, to the House.

The issue I raise concerns two special schools in Ballina, County Mayo. This is an ongoing issue which I have been slow enough to raise, but there has been no progress on it over the past few years.

There are two special schools involved, and because of time constraints I will outline some of the difficulties in just one of them. The matter has been before the Department of Education and Science for some time. Meetings began in 1998, so that the issue is as old as the Good Friday Agreement, with even less progress. It is quite unacceptable that the matter is being kicked back down the line.

These schools have been left behind because they have not got political clout or as much ability to apply pressure as other places might have. It would be scandalous if they were omitted from the Minister's list, which is still unavailable. We are close to the end of the second month of the year and we still do not know the building programme and budget and what projects will go ahead this year.

I am talking of two special schools and I will outline the situation in one, St. Nicholas's school. The school has 17 pupils ranging in age from four to 17, with all sorts of difficulties including autism and various other multiple difficulties which the Minister of State would well understand.

Any person will respond to the following. The school in question is a two-storey, semi-detached house. Only six of the 17 pupils are physically capable of climbing the stairs so the majority are taught downstairs. This is a quite impossible situation for parents, pupils, teachers or the school board. It is grossly unfair and there is a lack of equity about it. The rooms are hopelessly inadequate for the needs of the school, particularly in view of the increase in the number of pupils with multiple disabilities and their need for equipment, for access to the curriculum, for seating, handling and movement. It is impossible to provide adequately for those needs in the present situation. Safety issues are involved, including a fire issue. I am sure the Minister of State can easily visualise the situation when she considers how such a school can be run with children with profound needs and high levels of dependency, in what is effectively a private dwelling with "pretend" classrooms.

I asked a school board member and some of the staff to tell me how the school worked. One class has five pupils with profound difficulties of various types. Three pupils are taught in a downstairs room which is a small converted garage. All three are completely blind, and two fully physically dependent, necessitating wheelchairs, bean bags, mats and so on, for access and care. That description is probably enough to visualise the scene. That is just one class in the school.

The three blind pupils require nappy changing but access to the changing room is through two other classrooms. One can imagine the disruption, with blind children who need full support all the time, while the other children also need to be looked after. There are assistants to help the teachers but no teaching is going on if the teacher is involved with one of the pupils in this way. He or she cannot spend time with the others, who are then left to be helped by the assistants in whatever way they can. The assistants also need support.

This is a one-to-one situation. The pupils who need to be changed must either go through the classrooms to the other side of the building or exit the front door, cross the garden and enter through another door. These are blind, highly-dependent children who need nappies changed. At the same time the teacher is expected to teach the older pupils in the only other available room, a small bedroom upstairs.

The situation is intolerable for all concerned. The teacher is literally expected to be in two places at once. The lack of space combined with the needs of the children makes effective classroom management almost impossible. The Minister of State will understand that I could give her further examples and that this is just one. I know she will respond in a humane way to the situation. Negotiations with her Department began in 1998 and it was agreed shortly afterwards that the two special schools in the area would share facilities in the same building but would continue to exist as separate schools in order to facilitate the diverse needs of the pupils, who have a wide range of disabilities, needs and dependencies, some of which are multiple. All that needs to be tackled at the same time.

In March 1999, planning was initiated and a design team was appointed. In October 1999, the design brief was received from the team and sent to the Department of Education and Science, which agreed on matters such as location. The land became the property of Western Care in November 2000. In January 2002, a meeting was held in Tullamore at which the chairpersons and principals were assured that the project would then go ahead as planned.

There has been no progress since then. A revised design brief was sent to the Department and in October 2002 the schools were informed that the project was ready to move to stage 1 or 2 of planning. The design team was instructed accordingly. The design, accepted by the Department, consisted of a new building to accommodate both schools with a shared area for facilities in between. However, we are still awaiting instruction from the Department to continue to the next stage. There is a problem with health and safety and humanity which in St. Nicholas's school has reached crisis point. There must be immediate action.

Can anyone give me a reason that school cannot be a number one priority for the Department of Education and Science? How can we ask the staff and pupils to face into another year of difficulties? Even if the go-ahead were given now, it would still take a certain period of time to complete the school, so it faces another two years of trouble. If it does not get something now it is like facing an eternity of waiting. It is grossly unfair. I appeal to the Minister of State to do the decent thing and give the go-ahead to the project.