Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

Kildallon national school is 108 years old. The building has walls 12 ft. high. The rooms are very cold and the building is not insulated. It has been heated by storage heaters for most of this awful winter. The ceilings are so high that it is impossible to heat the building. The windows are wooden and single glazed. The classroom is an old, long and narrow room that contains 25 children across four different classes.

The secretary works in cramped conditions in that building. She has given me permission to make the following point and she was anxious that it would be made. She suffers from cystic fibrosis and the awful conditions in which she works have an even worse effect on her.

In addition to the permanent classroom the school has a prefab, which celebrated its 19th birthday last year and is approaching its 20th birthday. The prefab is in a very run-down and damp state. The exit door is held together by paint. It is hard to imagine that is the case but it is true. It is impossible to drive a nail through it. Some of the windows close and others do not open. The timber in the prefab is rotten. Infants and first class numbering 22 children occupy the prefab. I observed all of that personally, in addition to meeting the teaching and support staff.

The school would have had the numbers for three teachers this year but with the new arrangements it was not in a position to avail of a third teacher. It will get three teachers in September 2009. I pray the Minister will inform me the situation will be altered by then but assuming the situation does not alter, in a doomsday scenario the prefab will have disintegrated around the pupils and they will have climbed out, which means there would be a need for two classrooms in the school.

The school is currently applying to the Department for funding under the emergency works scheme of €42,000. It has obviously been to the banks at various stages through the years and this is the current application which it hopes will succeed. Even if the €42,000 is approved and spent there will ultimately be a need for two new classrooms.

The teaching and support staff are excellent, led by Ms Teresa McCaffrey, principal. She is exceptionally good and the school is exceptionally good. The parents have a great pride and interest in the school and there is a great whole school community in place. It is clearly unacceptable for the children to be in those conditions but the working conditions for the teachers and support staff are Dickensian. That is no exaggeration. The situation is really bad and cannot be sustained. I appeal to the Minister to act on this matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, and I were colleagues in the Seanad previously and he knows I would not exaggerate but if the Minister does for a moment think I exaggerate I invite him to visit the school. He would come back from it astounded.

This last global point hardly needs making, but surely with present contract prices and VAT returns saving people from being on the dole there is a merit in putting construction people to work on this job purely in the national interest. This school is suffering hugely and I appeal to the Minister to take action. I look forward with interest to his response.