Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is familiar with Moville community college, having visited it a number of times over the years. Last night, there was a large attendance of teachers, parents and students and there was great anger in the room at the delays that have been ongoing for years in delivering the new school buildings. The Minister will be aware that the existing prefab buildings are completely unacceptable. There are dilapidated conditions on the outside and leaks in the home economics room, for example. Facilities have been completely inadequate for a long time. Young people are crowded in together. The physical education, PE, facilities are utterly unacceptable by modern standards. There is no storage space. They can only avail of two of the approximately 18 options on the PE curriculum because of the limited capacity. The existing school building has substantial cracking throughout. I visited recently and could literally see from one room into the next through a horizontal crack going the whole way along the middle of the wall. They have an excuse for canteen facilities. They have to have caterers come in from outside to provide food on a bench. Toilets are closed. Kids are literally sitting down on the floor eating their food. This has been going on for years. The teachers and students and the principal have acted in good faith and have waited for these plans to proceed to construction phase. The prefabs in which they are teaching are Third World facilities. It was said last night that they provide a First World education in the school with fantastic teachers but that they have Third World facilities. This needs to come to an end. The Minister is a Donegal man and I hope and trust that he feels as strongly as I do. The anger in that room last night was palpable. We need to send a message from this Chamber today that the bureaucracy is coming to an end and that we will fast-track this project to planning and construction. We must end the period of the prefabs. We also need to give assurances that the serious structural issues within the existing building are going to be resolved and made safe as soon as possible.