Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my sympathy on the death of former Fianna Fáil Senator Jimmy Mulroy who served from 1987 to 1989. He sadly passed away this afternoon. As a colleague from County Louth I would like to express my sympathy.

I welcome the Minister of State here. I wish to raise the matter of a primary school in Dundalk who first applied for an extension 20 years ago. Finally, in 2009 it was added to the Department's list for an extension and the school has already completed stage 1 of the plans for the extension to the Department's satisfaction.

The school personnel, board of management, parents, parents' council, teachers and pupils have reported their dismay to me after they were advised earlier in the year, by letter, that their school had not been included in the five year plan for school extensions and have no guarantee that the project will be completed. I have many years of teaching experience. I have taught in old schools, new schools and in several schools that were hundreds of years old. I can assure the Minister of State that in my experience the environment in which a child is taught is vital to his or her learning experience.

The school building to which I refer is several hundred years old. While the principal and the staff do their utmost to brighten up the classrooms and the best that they can, I know from visiting the school that their job is made much more difficult because of the current state of the building and their limited space. I find it very difficult to comprehend that in 2013 a school which has no staffroom, no computer room, no staff toilet and no resource room can justifiably be excluded from the Department's list and that they have no guarantee when they will get a badly needed extension.

It must be recognised that all schools are vying for students now. Every school holds an open day to attract students and the numbers of pupils dictates the number of teachers required. The state of the school is detrimental to its bid to attract pupils to the school because it is not on the same playing field as other schools who have been granted extensions and have the resources that they need. The school has two classrooms and three prefabs which have greatly reduced the play area. Despite this there is another building on the site which is hundreds of years old and has now gone into total disrepair. It is dilapidated. In my opinion it would have been better to use the dilapidated building rather than pay the astronomical cost to install prefabs. I appreciate that is not the fault of the present Government and that the prefabs have been in situ for years. I acknowledge that the Minister for Education has done a great job on ensuring that prefabs are being replaced.

On my last visit to the school I had to conduct my meeting with the principal in the schoolyard. As a teacher I found that unbelievable. I had to meet her in the schoolyard as all of the classroom space was occupied. When it began to rain we had to conclude our meeting in her car. If one read about this in the 1940s and 1950s one would wonder what was going on. I was dismayed when the principal told me that this is what happens when she needs to conduct meetings and resource teaching is taking place because the school does not have a resource room. I commend the principal and her staff who do an exceptional job with limited resources.

The school is significant because it caters for a diversity of religions. As a parent I feel that parents and pupils deserve the right to send their child to a school which they feel caters to their religious preference. I am concerned that the lack of facilities available at the school could deter parents from sending their children to it. I ask the Minister of State to convey my concerns to the Minister. I also ask that the Minister visits the school in Dundalk and reassesses his decision in order to give all children of all religions equal facilities and equal access to education.