Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

There has been a fundamental change in the building programme of the Department of Education and Skills. The previous Government had, rightly, started to look forward at future demand for school places. It looked at census figures and children's allowance claims and started to develop a programme to build schools so that they would be in place in time for young people to start in education.Unfortunately, a frightening development has emerged in that a developing school is required to have 281 students for a 11-class teacher school while a developed school is only required to have 276 pupils. Those different schools do not have the same pressure in terms of enrolment numbers. A developing school that has recently opened that is striving to develop its student cohort would be under excessive pressure.

A local school, Shellybanks school in Sandymount, located not far from my home, which has moved into brand new prefabs has a fire safety certificate to have 33 pupils in each classroom. The Department, in its wisdom, decided to reduce its teacher allocation by one, which means the pupils in one class will have to go into several other classrooms but that will put the school dangerously close to breaching its fire safety certificate. The pupils in one of its classes are being spread across several classrooms. If a teacher is absent, the principal no longer has the flexibility to spread the pupils in that class across a number of classrooms, which would result in a number of pupils being sent home on the day or the school being closed. That is simply not sustainable.

I planned to propose an amendment to the Order of Business asking the Minister for Education and Skills to come into the Seanad today to examine if consideration can be given to providing flexibility in that regard, not only with respect to the Shellybanks school, but every developing school across the country, as they are under particular pressure as they develop. I will put forward an amendment to the Order of Business in that regard.

I commend Senator Swanick on raising the issue of air quality. He is correct in highlighting it is an issue not only in Dublin but in small towns across the country where dirty coal has not been banned. Exhaust pollution from diesel engines poses a particular problem in our cities.