Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

Ardpatrick national school is situated on a main road outside the speed limits of the village. It was originally built as a three-teacher school in a rural community in 1969, and the grounds incorporated approximately ten parking spaces for staff and parents. These spaces were arranged within a recess directly adjacent to the main road to allow the cars park parallel to it. Given that there was a lower usage of cars for transporting children to school and family patterns meant more children per family car, this allowed adequate parking for the staff of three and parents collecting and dropping off their children at the school.

In 2002 the school gained a fourth full-time resource teacher and the services of both a visiting resource teacher and a learning support teacher. The school also gained the service of two full-time special needs assistants and a part-time secretary. This led to at least six spaces being filled on a full-time basis with a further three spaces often being occupied either at the start or end of school by the part-time staff.

Social and population demographic changes placed further pressure on the limited parking spaces with an increase in car usage for bringing children to and from school. More families are now attending the school and these family units are smaller than previously, resulting in a greater number of cars being used to bring students to school. Often each car occupying a car parking space only contains a single student.

A potentially lethal situation has resulted from these changes. At collection and dropping off time, parents are often forced to double-park on the open road as the spaces available to them are rapidly occupied. This results in many of the students having to walk a distance through these double-parked cars on the main road to reach their parents' cars. The congested nature of the car-park and the need to pass outside the cars on the road has been identified as a clear hazard to students in the safety statement. The double-parking has also been identified as a hazard to passing traffic on the busy road. A poll taken among parents in 2003 and a subsequent petition seeking departmental redress of the situation clearly identified strong concerns about safety.

The board attempted to implement some measures to reduce these hazards. They applied to the county council to erect hazard warning lights and signs on the approaches to the school. This has had a limited effect on the speed of passing traffic. Through consultation with the parent body, attempts to relieve the congestion resulting from the limited parking facilities were made, including appeals to parents to stagger collection times, to turn their cars prior to collecting their children, to depart as soon as possible from the premises and that staff would park their cars perpendicular to the road. All of these measures proved unfeasible.

The board then applied for financial support to extend the parking facilities through the summer work scheme run by the Department of Education and Science. In 2003 a plan for extending the parking facilities was submitted to the Department for adjudication in February 2004. This application, supported by photographs of the parking situation, the results of the parents' poll and their petition, was rejected in March 2004, two months after the Department's deadline. The Department had placed this in amenity category six for funding, the lowest priority category. This says much about the Department's attitude to safety.

On appealing this decision, based on the Department's obligation to redress a clearly identified safety hazard, the school was requested to re-submit the plans for the following year's scheme. This was done, again in total compliance with the Department's regulations, but again, two months late once more, the appeal was rejected. The reason given this time was that a quantity surveyor had drawn up the plans. The school immediately appealed this decision on the grounds that the regulations applying to these plans did not prohibit their being drawn up by a quantity surveyor. This is clearly stated on the appendix to the regulations, which is available on www.education.ie, if the Minister of State wishes to examine it.

The board of management has sought planning permission for the car park and has sent a revised plan to the Department for re-assessment. The total cost, as per this revised plan, is approximately €42,000. The parking situation is clearly a safety issue. This year's application was rejected merely on the technicality that the plan was drawn up by a quantity surveyor. The school informed the Department that the quantity surveyor had been already involved in projects which received financial assistance from the Government, including the sheltered housing project in Kilfinane a year ago. While the board of management and parents clearly wish to act to eliminate the hazardous parking situation, due to the financial limitations on a small rural school, this cannot be done without a grant from the Department of Education and Science.

While I am discussing education, I wish to sympathise with the families who were bereaved or have children in hospital after the bus crash in Meath yesterday. I wish those in hospital a speedy recovery. We should focus on safety, and I hope we are not risking an accident at this school for the sake of the princely sum of €42,000. The Department should respond positively and not classify it in category six when the safety of school-children is in question. I look forward to a positive response.