Deputy Enright has ten minutes.
Adjournment Debate. - Birr Community School.
The matter I am raising tonight is of serious concern to the people of Birr and the surrounding areas. As the Minister is aware from continuous representations by me and, I am sure, by other Deputies from the area, the community school in Birr is now almost completed. It is envisaged that this school will accommodate approximately 900 pupils and will be ready for opening in September of this year. The school is built on a new site; there are no recreational facilities there, and no playing fields and so on area ready yet.
The Minister has taken an active interest in sport all his life and I am certain that he will agree that it is absolutely essential to have a sports hall provided in this community school. The House is aware that the Minister has received a capital allocation this year of £51 million for his Department. That is a sizeable amount of money. The Government have been advocating a policy of sport for all and we are all aware of this and we ought to be encouraging people to keep fit. The cost of providing this sports hall at present values is in the region of £100,000. I am certain that out of the £51 million that the Minister has at his disposal he will be able to provide the necessary £100,000.
The Minister is also aware that the number of pupils who will be attending this school will necessitate the employment of at least two and perhaps more physical education teachers. Without a sports hall these teachers will have no facilities whatsoever for the taking of classes, and many problems will arise. The teachers will perhaps have to bring pupils to some other building in order to take classes and all of this will cause confusion and difficulty in the school.
A healthy mind is a great thing but a healthy body is equally essential, and one goes with the other. Good health and physical fitness are absolutely necessary for young students attending schools, and so a sports hall must be provided for the pupils of this school. As well as that, there will be no room in the school large enough to accommodate all the pupils together. If it should be necessary for any of the staff to address the assembled school there is no hall or room large enough to allow that, and the envisaged sports hall will be necessary for a meeting place for such an occasion which I am certain will arise.
As the name implies, a community school is for the benefit of the community. I am speaking of the teachers at the school and the pupils attending there, but I am also referring to the entire community, the men, women, boys and girls, everybody who is part of the community of Birr and all of the surrounding areas and environs. This hall will be of benefit to each and every member of that community who wishes to become physically fit. In the winter months sports teams can train in this hall and clubs can have accommodation there. Overall, this hall will be of immense benefit to the whole community. As the Government have been advocating a policy of sport for all, the provision of this hall will be a practical demonstration of their sincerity in that I am sure the Minister will ensure that it is provided. He has received a number of communications from the liaison committee. Since last November he has received requests from a number of Deputies to receive a deputation to discuss the provision of the sports hall. I hope the viewpoints I am putting forward tonight are those which the deputation would have put to the Minister. I hope that he can tell us that the hall will be provided.
One of my main reasons for speaking on this matter tonight is that there are three schools amalgamating now for the formation of this community school and it is absolutely essential that the school get off to a good start. This takes a lot of co-operation and goodwill. The task of the teaching staff and everybody concerned with this school will be much more difficult if this sports hall is not provided. As the Minister is aware, if the sports hall is built after the school is opened it will cause problems because there will be machinery, equipment and building materials on the site. I hope the Minister will give the green light to go ahead with the erection of this hall. If the work commences in the next few weeks the sports hall should be ready for the opening of the community school in September.
First of all, I want to say that I appreciate Deputy Enright's concern about the provision of a sports hall. I prefer to use the term physical education hall in this context because we have provided at great expense an excellent college in Limerick to train physical education teachers. I want to get the idea across that physical education is just as much education as physics, history or any other subject. The term "sports hall" to some people has a non-educational connotation, so I will talk in terms of physical education halls.
The Department met a deputation who were pushing the claims of Birr to a physical education hall. I met a private deputation and Deputies Lalor, Cowan and Connolly have been pushing me as well as Deputy Enright. There is a question on the Order Paper from Deputy O. J. Flanagan about Birr. It is a measure of the achievement of the Government that physical education halls should be built because, as the House is aware, the building of physical education halls was suspended by the previous Government in 1976. I regret, because of the views I have expressed already and the views expressed by Deputy Enright that the physical education facility is just as important as a science laboratory, that the building of those halls was suspended very shortly after the then Minister for Education, Mr. Burke, had announced a programme of building halls and said he had available £500,000 for this. It met with a sudden death. This was a retrograde step.
That kind of step has an effect on the future, because each school built without a hall is a debt we owe and something which has to be remedied. It is unfortunate that there is such a backlog. There is a very heavy burden on me. This year the capital allowance has been increased substantially. As I announced, I intend to resume building physical education halls. I want to assure the House that in the survey I am making scores of applications are in for physical education halls. With regard to future halls I intend to provide them as a matter of course.
I should like to refer to costs. A totally unrealistic figure was mentioned. The cost now of a physical education hall is approaching £200,000, which is a substantial sum of money. The size of the school is one criterion, but not the only one, and I am not saying that it is the most important one. If I have a commitment to provide physical education halls for all future schools, that in itself is a considerable strain on our finances without talking of trying to make up the backlog.
I congratulate Deputy Enright on the intelligent and reasoned way he presented his arguments for the hall in Birr. I agree with him that this is very important for our youth. We are providing highly qualified teachers. The standard of entry to the college is very high. The education they receive there and the pedagogic training they get is something we can be proud of.
I am glad the word "community" was mentioned. The people from Birr I met emphasised very strongly the importance of a physical education hall for community participation in Birr. I want to tell the House that I will have a programme for this year. It would be invidious for me to single out any particular school but I hope to be able to make an announcement in the not too distant future. Birr is one of the many schools from Dublin to Cork that has come up for consideration.
The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 8 March 1979.