Deputy Tom Fitzpatrick gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of a school at Corracrin, Emyvale, County Monaghan.
Adjournment Debate. - Corracrin (County Monaghan) National School.
I thank you for allowing me to raise on the Adjournment of the House the question of the reconstruction and extension of Corracrin School, County Monaghan. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, for coming to listen to this debate. I hope he will give me an assurance that the contract for the new work may be placed.
The original school at Corracrin, adjacent to St. Patrick's Church, was built in 1835 shortly after Catholic Emancipation. It is situated about four miles from Monaghan town on the main Dungannon road. This school was replaced by a new school on the same site in 1955, the old school having been condemned several years previously. The new school was a two-roomed, two-teacher school built to accommodate 50 children and two teachers. Therein lies the beginning of the shocking problem I am trying to have remedied this evening.
In 1972 another school in the parish of Killyraine was closed and amalgamated with Coracrin school. The 71 pupils and two teachers from Killyraine came to Coracrin. I should say that the Coracrin catchment area could be described as a dormitory area for Monaghan town, which is only four miles away. It is a thickly populated area where the people are well housed. They take a pride in their homes and in their area generally. In the old days it used to be the case that children went from very inadequate housing with poor sanitary accommodation etc. to schools which were an improvement on what they had at home. To ask the children in this area to go from good modern homes and spend several hours a week in this most unsuitable building is just unbearable.
In 1972 when the two schools were amalgamated two pre-fab rooms were provided with a life span of ten years. By 1976, only four years later, attendance had increased to 154 pupils. The very reverend manager was authorised to purchase another pre-fab to cater for the additional students. On this occasion he was told to buy a secondhand pre-fab because a new extension would be provided by 1979, three years later. The secondhand pre-fab would then have outlived its usefulness. It has certainly outlived its usefulness but no extension has been carried out. That secondhand pre-fab purchased in 1976 has a history which is given locally as having been used for housing greyhounds before it was purchased for use as a school.
It is almost 20 years since these first pre-fabs were acquired and the only change is that they have deteriorated and are crumbling down. Enrolment at the school has increased to 184 pupils with five teachers. A sixth teacher is due to be appointed next January.
I do not have to tell the Minister that the accommodation at Corracrin school is absolutely unsuitable for a school building and is a health hazard for the children and teachers. The Minister knows it and has said so. The building is grossly overcrowded. The two rooms in the 1955 building which were built for 50 pupils are now housing 80 people, plus furniture and fittings which were never even heard of in 1955. The result is that the entire building is crowded and the children are like sardines in a tin. There are 20 desks in one room for 40 pupils — that is two pupils are crammed into each desk. The ceilings of the building in general are falling down.
The sanitary arrangements are quite inadequate. Apart from being inadequate for the children, there is one toilet for six teachers, male and female. The three pre-fab rooms have outlived their usefulness, two being provided in 1972 with a life expectancy of ten years and the dog house, as I call it, being provided in 1976 with a life span of three years. These buildings are falling asunder and are quite unsuitable as schoolrooms.
The most alarming point is that the sanitary arrangements, such as they are, are serviced by a septic tank which is situated just beside the playground, only a few yard's from the main school building and the pre-fabs. That septic tank was provided to serve 50 pupils and two teachers. The same septic tank is serving 183 pupils and five teachers. The result is that it is overflowing and seeping out into the playground. There is a most malodorous smell coming from it which has to be endured at the school building. That is very alarming and out of keeping with the age in which we live.
It is clear from the fire officers remarks given by the county council that the building in its present state is a fire hazard. The medical man who examined the school concluded his recent report by saying that in his opinion the children in this school are exposed to excessive and unnecessary health risks. He says the school buildings should be condemned and replaced with a new school.
We are not asking the Minister for a brand new school. The 1955 building can be made serviceable but we are asking him to reconstruct it and to provide an extension of six rooms, as well as a new septic tank. The Minister is not prevented from doing this by any arrangements he has recently entered into because this extension was promised before any such cutbacks were made. This extension was first promised in 1976 to the then parish priest. In 1982 it was promised in writing and in 1985 and 1986 plans were drawn up and eventually approved by the Department. Between the end of last year and January this year, permission was given to put the project to tender. Tenders were invited and by the end of February a number of tenders had been received, some of them suitable, and were sent to the Department.
I understand an acceptable tender has been found but the Minister says he cannot approve the placing of the contract because he does not have the money. At the same time, his Department are prepared to authorise more pre-fabs, if you do not mind. Pre-fabs were erected in 1972 and in 1976 and now he is prepared to spend £100,000 providing more pre-fabs. That is not acceptable and it is terrible economics because the total cost of the reconstruction and extension is less than £300,000. Yet, the Minister is prepared to throw another £100,000 down the drain. The parents will not accept this. They are responsible parents. There have been no strikes but they want justice as they see it and as any reasonable person would see it.
With a deputation of myself, Deputy Jimmy Leonard, Deputy Boylan and others, met the Minister on 10 June last and put our case to him. He accepted without question that the conditions in the school were appalling. The Principal officer, Mr. Rowley, was there and saw the school. There was no question about the inadequacy of the school accommodation or about the need to go ahead with the contract. The only question was whether the school would go to contract at the end of this year or, at the very latest, before Easter of next year. We got a clear and unqualified assurance from the Minister and he was to send a letter home with the deputation that evening, but there was a little bit of "wobbling" about the writing of the letter when they went back to his office. We got a letter and if it means anything to a reasonable person it means that on 10 June last the Minister gave an undertaking that he hoped to place the contract before the end of 1987, but he gave an assurance that it would be placed at the latest before Easter of next year. I put down a parliamentary question on this today.
For accuracy, the letter should be read into the record.
I will read the letter:
Dear Mr. McCormack,
I refer to your visit today when you were accompanied by a deputation from Corracrin. As I said the urgency of the provision of the new school is fully accepted but I am constrained at this point for financial reasons from giving an exact date for the approval and placing of the contract.
My Department is at present undertaking a complete review of the national schools building programme in the light of expenditure. If the outcome of this review is favourable it may be possible to give the project the `go-ahead' later this year. While it is almost impossible to give absolute commitments when the financial situation is as uncertain as it is, I am strongly confident that the placing of the contract will be approved by the end of Spring 1988 at the latest.
That letter did not measure up to what the Minister promised in his office and when he went back to his Department he gave us this letter. The deputation spent four hours arguing with him to try to get him to give the exact letter he promised but it did not appear and they brought that letter home. If it means anything, it means the Minister committed himself to replacing an entirely unsuitable, unsanitary, unhealthy school with the school provided for in the plans and specifications before Easter 1988. I want the Minister to confirm this evening that he will do just that. I will conclude now as I want to give some of my time to my colleague, Mr. Boylan.
I want to thank you, Sir, for giving us this opportunity to raise this very serious problem. I can assure the Minister that he will not have a more serious problem in a national school than that at Corracrin.
I have had in excess of 70 letters from concerned parents over the summer and I took it on myself to visit the school. I was alarmed at what I saw. I thought the parents might have been exaggerating to get us to make a stronger case for them, but they had in no way exaggerated their case. I was very concerned about what I saw there and I hope Deputy Fitzpatrick and I can get our concern across to the Minister. If anything bad happened there it would be on our heads because we had not done enough to secure an improvement.
Deputy Fitzpatrick dealt with health matters and I have a report from a local practitioner, Dr. Michael McDonell. He makes no fewer than 14 points saying that this school should be condemned and replaced. He says that earlier this year the school came to a standstill because of an outbreak of smallpox. If any of the pupils had contracted that disease, I have no doubt it would have spread like wildfire. My primary concern is that the health of these children is not put at risk because conditions in this school are not ideal for learning.
I was very concerned when I walked into the classroom and saw all the desks together. There were no aisles. These children are packed into prefabs — one of which had recently been used as a dog kennel. These junior infants, very young children who would not understand what to do in an emergency, are packed into these rooms. If there was a fire in one of these prefabs in the morning these children could not be evacuated. I have here the fire officer's report. He is concerned about the electric wiring in the school. That, too, is a danger because there is a very great risk of a fire starting. If that were to happen all the money in the Department of Education would not compensate for the loss of even one life.
I take the Minister to be a concerned person who is trying to do his best and in saying that I am not backslapping him in an effort to get a commitment from him. However, I cannot understand the attitude of the Department when they say that they are prepared to spend up to £100,000 on extensions. They are throwing good money after bad. They should not get involved in such an exercise. I appeal to the Minister to give serious consideration to building a new school.
I should like to thank Deputies Fitzpatrick and Boylan for their constructive contributions on this issue. I agree with what has been said. During the summer I visited the school which is one of a number in the country that has acute problems. I have done everything possible to make progress in regard to replacing the school. Deputy Fitzpatrick referred to the meeting on 10 June, and a subsequent letter, but he did not mention an important point, which I was at pains to make on 10 June, that my commitment to have a contract placed was a definite one but subject to the financial position. The Deputy will recall that on that day I outlined to the deputation the position with regard to the Estimate of £30 million being available last year and my desire, and demand, to have £30 million available this year. It was on the basis of receiving that sum of money that I made the commitment mentioned by the Deputy. However, instead of £30 million being available £15 million will be available. That means that no new school starts can be made in 1988.
This is not a new school.
However, because the position in regard to the school is so bad and because my officials and I are so anxious to correct it, we have tried to bring about a solution to the problem. We offered semi-permanent buildings, described as prefabricated classrooms, at a cost of roughly £100,000 as replacements for the existing classrooms. The new classrooms we are offering are not of the prefab type used in schools up to now. There seems to have been a misunderstanding on the part of Deputy Fitzpatrick about that. We are talking about concrete permanent buildings, a very different standard of building to the timber temporary prefabs that are there at the moment.
I should like to tell the House that we are proposing to carry out this work as a special measure, despite the financial position, in an effort to alleviate the difficulties that exist at Corracrin. Deputy Boylan told us that he has received 70 letters about this problem but I should like to point out to him that local people, however they found me, were able to send me about 170 letters to Kilbeacanty. I have had Corracrin on my breakfast table for the past 12 weeks and I can assure the Deputies I am familiar with the views of all parents in the district. They wrote me some nice and not so nice letters during that period.
The Minister will have Corracrin parents in the front garden if he does not give those people a new school.
Any person from Monaghan is welcome in my front garden at any time. The offer we have made is a genuine one in the present climate and one which I wish I could make to other schools which are in a bad state. We have also told the school authorities at Corracrin that if they do not want the pre-fabricated type of building we are prepared to accommodate their proposals for a permanent traditional type structure provided they are prepared to come up with the extra money that will be required to do that.
The Minister is talking about £30,000.
We have also promised the local people we will provide the finance to carry out other necessary improvements to the existing facilities. I consider those offers to be very fair. I must emphasise to the House that the day of building Rolls Royce schools is over.
Those people are not looking for a Rolls Royce school.
Spending in the region of £40,000 per classroom was a waste of resources. There is no reason why we cannot provide adequate school buildings for half the cost of buildings erected in recent year. When I was appointed Minister of State one of the first questions I asked was how long it would take to carry out the building programme on the basis of the progress made in the previous 12 months. My officials told me that it would take nine years to do that work. It is intolerable to have to go at that slow pace and immediately I initiated a policy to cut down the high cost. I am pleased to be able to report that we have succeeded and that we are able to provide satisfactory accommodation at half the cost up to now. The difficulty we are facing now is that the Government have decided we will be getting half the amount of money that was allocated last year. As a result we are in a difficult position, one we do not like to be in but one which I accept. It is important that I state that the financial position of the country is the biggest problem we have to sort out and we will succeed in regard to that.
We are anxious to make progress in regard to the condition of many bad schools. We have decided to give the school authorities in Corracrin the option of a substantial amount of money for the provision of semi-permanent accommodation or providing the traditional type of construction at a cost that will come within the limitations placed upon us. In addition, we are prepared to carry out the necessary improvements to the existing facilities.
Does that include doing away with the present prefabs?
That is correct. We are prepared to replace the present prefabs with the new type of prefabricated concrete accommodation or, as an alternative, if the local people are able to come within the cost limitations imposed on us, to approve the traditional type of structure. In my view that is a fair offer and I hope it will be accepted. I found Deputy Fitzpatrick to be a very reasonable person when he was Ceann Comhairle and I hope he considers my offer to be reasonable. I hope he accepts it in the good faith it is made bearing in mind the limitations under which I must work.
Deputy Fitzpatrick should recommend acceptance of this offer to the local people so that we can proceed quickly with the project. In my view I am adhering to the commitment I made, perhaps not to the letter but that is not possible in today's circumstances. It is not possible to stick to the letter of that commitment at present, a commitment that was made in good faith, but I am doing the next best thing. There is still some time to go before the end of spring 1988 if the Deputy wishes to wait but I do not think I will be able to give a commitment then. I hope we can sort out this problem. It is my desire that we should come to a satisfactory conclusion in regard to this school.
Will the Minister of State ask the Department of the Environment for the history, economic and structural, of low priced houses built by his party some years ago? Does the Minister appreciate that he is proposing to erect the prefab structures beside the local parish church and its nicely laidout grounds on the main thoroughfare between Monaghan and Dungannon?
Has the Deputy any idea of the type of accommodation we are suggesting?
I have seen many examples of the structures sanctioned by Deputy Molloy when he was Minister for Local Government.
I am not responsible for what Deputy Molloy did, thank God. I will give the Deputy, and other Members, an opportunity to view examples of the proposed accommodation. I should like to point out to him that this type of structure has been tried and tested over many years in other countries. We are satisfied as to its durability and suitability in any environment or landscape.
The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 5 November 1987.