asked the Minister for Education the estimated number of national schools which are not equipped with electric current and inside toilets and which have open fires.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - National School Facilities.
111.
Of a total of 4,343 national schools in operation in the school year 1968-69, it is estimated that 1,200 were not equipped with electric current, and that 2,000 were heated by open fires.
Available information does not enable me to say in how many of those schools there are "inside toilets", that is, toilets incorporated in the school building proper.
Is the Minister prepared to institute a crash programme to bring about a far more vigorous improvement in the physical conditions in many of these national schools? Would he not agree that it contrasts very sharply with the general euphoria of the Government in relation to education when one discovers that, out of 4,300 schools, 1,200 have not even got electric light?
May I ask the Minister why he has this detailed information in relation to electricity and open fires and has not got it about the very much more important point of the inside toilets?
Evidently it is more difficult to get that information. However, a further survey of the position is taking place shortly.