Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor, for coming to the Chamber to discuss the urgent situation at St. Molaga's senior national school in Balbriggan. When I submitted this Commencement matter, may I point out that I used the following wording: "The need for the Minister for Education and Skills to fast-track the essential building works at St. Molaga's senior national school, Balbriggan, County Dublin." Unfortunately I have been in this Chamber on a number of occasions and raised the issue of St. Molaga's with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton. I am very sorry and frustrated to be here again today with the Minister of State and her officials to discuss the dire situation in St. Molaga's senior national school.

St. Molaga's senior national school based in the town of Balbriggan, County Dublin, has 467 students, 28 teachers and six special needs assistants. For the past 18 years, the expanding school population has been housed in prefabs. Some 58% of the students in the school are housed in prefabs that are 18 years old and these prefabs are crumbling and are completely unfit for purpose. There are holes in these leaking prefabs which are damp and completely unacceptable. They have gone past their use by date. The state of disrepair is down to the age of the prefabs. The school itself has done its best to preserve the buildings so that the students could be housed for additional years. The prefabs are completely overcrowded, freezing cold in the winter and really hot in the summer time. The situation has become extremely urgent.

Last week during Storm Ali, four prefabs were evacuated and the children and their teachers had to take up residence in the corridors of the main building and in the school hall. The lids of two of the prefab water tanks were blown off and the school had to go into shutdown, meaning that more than half of the school could not access the main school building because they are in prefabs in another part of the site.

These old, damp, crumbling prefabs are posing a serious risk to the students and staff who operate out of them. As I said, more than half of the school population are housed in the prefabs. The students and teachers are constantly sick, they are getting chest infections, and students who suffer from asthma have been detrimentally affected by this situation. Students are at absolute breaking point. I know that prior to entering politics, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor was a principal-----