Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I raise the urgent need for the refurbishment of St. Brigid's national school in Palmerstown, Dublin 20. This school has commissioned a health and safety audit. Following a response from the Department of Education and Science, the Health and Safety Authority will visit the school on 9 October 2008. This is how serious the situation is. I do not know if this is unprecedented but it is extraordinary that the school has had to commission a health and safety audit because of the conditions in it and that the Health and Safety Authority will visit it to investigate.

St. Brigid's national school has 388 pupils and has been waiting ten years for essential refurbishment and extension. It is now at the tender-evaluation stage and the builder is ready to go yet despite all this, imagine the shock and disappointment of the parents, the school, the school principal and the pupils when they found out on Monday that the school was not included in the Minister for Education and Science's priority school list. They had fully expected to be on the list this week.

These students are being educated in Dickensian conditions. There is mould, dampness and asbestos behind toilets and there are loose electrical wires. This is extraordinary. Between 300 and 400 concerned parents turned up on Monday night at a meeting in the school to highlight the appalling conditions and the urgent need for the refurbishment. I pay tribute to the principal and teachers. There is a wonderful atmosphere in the school, despite the appalling physical conditions. I do not know how the teachers do the work they do nor how the principal, Noeleen Conboy and Fiona Ebbs, chairperson of the parents' association, have kept up their spirits.

The situation is ludicrous because between professional fees and temporary accommodation, a bill of approximately €700,000 has been incurred to date. These moneys went to getting prefabs on site and paying the fees for the building so far. The prefabs temporarily housing the students cost €12,000 a month, yet the new school was not on the list this week.

I already mentioned the health and safety audit and would like a response on that. Will the Minister of State tell us when the essential works will take place in the school and how much longer it will have to wait? We have a thriving community with a school in the middle of it, but because of the conditions young people are going to move. They will travel on the motorway and go to schools further away. The school will lose teachers if that continues. It has already waited a decade. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say about when funding will be provided to the school.