Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. The issue I raise is the long delay in the commencement of building works for an extension at St. Kieran's national school, Baylin, Athlone. Baylin is a beautiful, perfectly manicured village which serves as a suburb of Athlone. It also has large numbers of one-off housing. The school, which has two classrooms of less that 40 square metres, applied for an extension four years ago to accommodate a general purpose room, classrooms, an office and a multi-purpose room. It is essential that a school of the size of Baylin national school has a multi-purpose room to accommodate dentists, general practitioners and many others who visit to provide care for pupils. Children are currently being seen in the staffroom which is completely unacceptable.

The population of Baylin continues to grow and the school will have a combined class of 35 children next year. Major remedial works are needed to repair leaking roofs and so forth. When will the contract for the construction of a new extension commence? The school has been given an undertaking that the extension will be built. For how long will the Government allow the shameful delay in the works to continue? Four years is much too long to wait. The extension is not a luxury but an urgent necessity, including from a health and safety perspective.

For the past four weeks, pupils at Baylin national school have not been able to participate in physical activity owing to poor weather conditions. This is outrageous and I await a response from the Minister of State who I am sure is all too familiar with the school.