Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, to the House and thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this item on the Adjournment. With his permission, I wish to share my time with Senator Kitt.

Holy Rosary College in Mountbellew is a rapidly expanding school with more than 500 students. Since 1968, this school has been seeking an extension, expansion and a sports hall. The new school, which was to have included a physical education hall, was approved in 1968. Unfortunately, the new school was completed in 1970 without the PE hall. The school has consistently endeavoured to obtain it since 1968. Yesterday, the Minister for Education and Science announced €5,000 for PE equipment for every school in the country, yet this school cannot avail of that. This has happened before. On numerous occasions the Department provided computers, yet there was no space or suitable facilities to utilise them.

The Department of Health and Children and the Department of Education and Science often emphasise the importance of physical education and other recreational activities for students to avoid obesity and other difficulties that may arise through inactivity. The Holy Rosary school needs a major extension to accommodate additional classrooms and a PE hall. After waiting all these years, the school should be granted these facilities. Field games and indoor sports have always been important to the school's ethos. The Minister and the Department should sanction approval for the classrooms, refurbishment and the PE hall. These much needed additional facilities, which were included in the original school plan, should now be provided after such a long delay.

The proposal has reached stage 2, with a submission to the Department's planning and building unit. It is hoped that it can move on to stage 3 soon and that the school authorities should not have to wait any longer for the expansion to be approved. Two generations have passed through the school since 1968 and no other school in the country has had such a record of neglect in the face of simple demands for a much needed facility. Various Ministers have repeatedly stressed the importance of physical education in the school curriculum, yet Holy Rosary College in Mountbellew has been waiting for a PE facility for almost 40 years. There is nothing left for the Minister to say other than that it is time the facility went through.