Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The principal, Lorraine Bullard, has written to me and has set out the case very clearly. It is a case which would be repeated in many schools I know of. The school is on a narrow country road which has got busier because it leads to Ireland West Airport Knock. It is a two-teacher school. The only option for the staff is to park on the road. The only option for parents dropping off kids is to do so at the roadside. Cars are whizzing by on what is a substandard and inadequate road in any event. The Department will not assist the school in the provision of parking or traffic management and the local authority does not want to help either. In my view, road safety and traffic management should be the concern of both the local authority, in this case Mayo County Council, and the Department of Education and Skills. The reality is that if these students were fortunate enough to be getting a new school, the Department of Education and Skills would require traffic management and provision for children to get in and out of transport - cars or buses - safely. These schools cannot afford that because they are small. There needs to be co-operation.