Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Senator Wilson. I welcome the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to the House and thank him for dealing with this matter.

Laragh national school is a five-teacher school with 130 children on its roll book. Four out of five of the classrooms are prefabricated buildings, with 80% of the children being educated in these rooms, which is an extraordinary statistic. A full 75% of the prefabricated buildings are 36 years old. These temporary buildings were put in place with an intended life span of ten years, which means that they are 26 years beyond their sell-by date. There are various health and safety concerns and very high maintenance bills associated with these inadequate buildings.

The school has an excellent teaching staff and an excellent principal leading them. It is a wonderful school community but morale is greatly damaged by the current state of affairs. The board of management has been campaigning for the past ten years for improved facilities, with no success. Problems faced daily include inadequate heating, no hot water in toilets and classrooms, an inadequate sewerage system that is continually blocking, a leaking roof which is in danger of collapsing, slippery and dangerous tiles in hallways and toilets, no cloakrooms or facilities for storing coats, bags, footballs, etc., classroom windows that will not open or close without force, dampness causing foul smells in many classrooms, dangerous steps in the yard, leaking gutters, and major traffic problems outside the school gates.

A reputable builder visited the school recently and carried out an assessment of the state of the prefabricated buildings. He asserted that he does not believe the buildings will survive another winter. They are at the end of their lifespan which begs the question what we replace them with. The school has experienced a serious problem with mice in recent weeks. Teachers have been trying to set traps and kill mice before children arrive in the mornings, which is an horrendous state of affairs.

An application for a new school building was submitted ten years ago but nothing has happened since then. The parish has purchased a site for a new school, yet nothing has happened. In essence, we have drab, semi-derelict prefabs and a field upon which a new school can be built. I submit that in the current economic climate, a reasonably cheap contract could be entered into to build a new school. It would be cost-effective and would provide employment to people who might otherwise be unemployed. The current situation is absurd in terms of social and educational policy. Children are leaving comfortable and pleasant conditions at home and going into dreadful conditions at school which does not create the right signals for children. It is demoralising in that regard. We have an extraordinarily good teaching staff and a great school community. It is a tribute to this excellent teaching staff that they have maintained morale and maintained a vibrant, happy school in the awful conditions in which they operate. I appeal to the Minister to give a positive reply. I say respectfully that I can see no logic in an alternative.