I would like to thank you, a Cheann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment of the House. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to let us know what he can do to remedy the situation which is very serious.
This school is situated on the main road from Cootehill to Cavan. It was originally the school for the parish of Drung. The old school was sold some time ago and a large prefabricated building replaced it. Needless to say, when the prefabricated building was new it was quite presentable and looked well but the effective life of most prefabricated houses is about ten years or 12 years at the maximum. This building has been in existence for almost 20 years and it certainly shows the signs of it. Very often the Minister has to listen to exaggerated stories in this House but I visited this school last week and the people were not exaggerating. The condition of the school is appalling particularly now that we are facing the winter. The roof is leaking, the teachers have to run around with buckets to catch the rain coming through and the rat holes are quite terrifying. I do not like rats. I can tolerate mice but rats are sinister and dangerous. The teachers indicated that rat droppings are visible all over the school each morning. They have to take home whatever teaching aids and equipment they have.
There is a strong parents association there and they are really frightened about the possibility of disease. With so many small children of four and a half and five years of age this adds to the horror. The mothers are terrified. The parents committee discussed the possibility that the Department would give them, pending the start of building, a grant to employ a company who deal with rat infestation. This would at least take the terror out of the area for a while. I am not exaggerating. These are the circumstances we found. The people are frustrated and are pressuring the board of management. The pastor, the Reverend Turlough O'Reilly, is a particularly caring man but the pressure the people are exerting on him is making him very upset.
The people applied for a new school, bought a site and collected the money. There was no humming or hawing and no neglect. They decided that a new school should be built and went about it in the right way. The first shock they got was when the local authority refused them planning permission. They did not expect that this would happen. The Department of Education advised them to appeal to An Bord Pleanála and they did this. As the House knows this takes some time. The result was that the appeal was turned down and they were then back where they started. But the people were not put off by that. They then started to look for another site and succeeded in getting one. They had the money collected, they had a site and they also had a declaration from the health authority that the building was unfit for human habitation. If the same conditions as I saw last week applied in a factory, the factory Acts would apply and a factory owner would be forbidden to conduct business in such conditions.
I put down a question some time ago and was told that a quantity surveyor was to visit the site last February. He did not visit the site until July 1986. Admittedly, it was not a great summer but had the building started it would be well advanced by now. In the meantime, and these are the parents' words, the school became infested and the rodents ate anything that was left in the school overnight necessitating teachers to carry equipment to and from the school. If clothes or any other items are left in the school overnight they are eaten by rats. The teachers are busy keeping the rat holes covered.
The parents spoke to me about the possibility of a strike. Both during my time as Minister for Education and at any other time I have tried always to dissuade people from striking on the principle, as I said at the meeting, that whereas productivity can be made up for in a factory or a manufacturing business, in a school, and especially one where education is so necessary and is very often the only vehicle for social mobility, the time lost can never be replaced. Mention of a strike shows how desperate the parents are. They are terrified for the health of their children. They continue to emphasise that hitherto they have tried all peaceful methods. It would be a pity if the peaceful, persistent and efficient activity on the part of parents would appear to bring less success than demonstration and confrontation might bring. That is part of my basic philosophy. They tell me they have informed the Department they intend to keep their children at home from school three days per week starting on 12 November until the tenders for the school are out and sanctioned.
They were offered further prefabricated accommodation and they tell me that they have turned the offer down. I believe that in doing so they were right. I am not blaming the Minister for this, but the tendency is to let maith go leor be maith go leor if there is some temporary relief in the nature of prefabricated accommodation. They had been so busy collecting for the school and other parochial purposes before that — I remember urging them to build a school a long time ago — and they feel that taking £10,000 out of the fund they have already for a permanent and proper school and putting it into prefabricated accommodation would be wrong. I think the Minister and the House would agree with them on that.
As I have said, it is easy to develop fears, legitimate and valid fears, but the psychology of the thing is important also. It is easy to develop an idea that somehow or other through being passive and through arguing their case in a peaceful and pacific way others who shout louder, make more noise or indulge in more violent antics, will get in ahead of them. That was one of the points raised at the meeting. They were afraid they might lose their place on the list.
I have here a copy of the letter which the secretary of the parents' association sent to the Department of Education which I quote: "We the parents wish to inform the Depertment of Education that we intend to withdraw our children from St. Mary's national school, Drung, for three days per week unless the quantity surveyor's report is completed by Tuesday 4 November and tenders are out by Tuesday, 11 November." No doubt the Minister will tell me and the House the time scale, but my appeal is to the Minister. He is of the profession and I know he is an understanding person who would insist on the highest professional behaviour from the staff and the highest possible standard of school building. I am relying on him, that by his action he will see to it that the parents will get assurances that will be delivered on and that further drastic action will not be required from them.
I reiterate my gratitude to you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me an opportunity of raising this in the House. Tá súil agam go mbheidh dea-scéal againn ón Aire. Mar a dúirt mé cheana féin, is iar-mhúinteoir é agus tá a fhios aige chomh dian is atá sé ar na malraigh agus ar na múinteoirí bheith ag obair i scoil den tsórt sin.