Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I appreciate the opportunity of raising this issue. The Le Chéile Educate Together School was established six years ago on the grounds of Drogheda grammar school on Mornington Road, just outside Drogheda facing the River Boyne. In recent years the school has grown to accommodate a student population of 325, which is 50% higher than that of Drogheda grammar school whose site it occupies. During the past six years it has been housed in prefabricated buildings and still does not have a permanent structure. I visited the school yesterday and although we are not yet in the depths of winter, all the staff still had their coats on because heat was escaping from non-insulated rooms. In addition, damp patches were coming up through the floors. In 2007, it is a bit much to ask teachers and children to put up with such conditions. It is only because of the staff's dedication that the children's education is not suffering.

Apart from the vast cost of renting 19 prefabricated units from a private company, the heating bills are excessive because of heat loss through non-insulated walls. In addition, no economic analysis has been carried out to see whether or not it would be better to build a new school now and be done with it. If we compared the cost of a new school to the cost of renting temporary buildings with heat loss, it would make more sense for the Minister to put a new school in place. Earlier this year it was hoped that a new school would be built because, after much toing and froing, the Department managed to purchase the site. At that time, all the parents and teachers thought a permanent school was just around the corner, but nothing has happened since then. Meanwhile, there has been a deafening silence from the Department. The priorities for school buildings seem to have suddenly changed. Priority now seems to be focused on schools around the Dublin region to the detriment of schools further outside the capital, such as the proposed permanent Le Chéile one.

Years ago we had cutbacks and spending freezes, but now we have the Orwellian concept of changes to a school's priority banding. That is how we get round the terminology. As a result of those changes, however, children and teachers are losing out because they are causing more delays. In this case, for example, it means some children will not be able to join their brothers and sisters there next autumn because no permanent school building is in place. Some 197 children are already on the enrolment list for 56 places at that school. Every place there is oversubscribed by four to one. If that is not a priority, I do not know what is.

I would like to ask the Minister of State two simple questions. I know he is provided with a response that is probably three or four pages long and which possibly will not give me the answer, although I hope I am wrong about that. My first question is when will the building work commence no the school? Second, when will it be finished? That is all I need to know.