I thank the chair for allowing me to raise on the Adjournment the conditions in Moylough national school which is near Tubbercurry in south Sligo. As the Chair is aware, it is not my practice, except by way of parliamentary question, to raise essentially local issues in the Dáil. I raised the question of Moylough national school because the conditions there amount to a national issue. The conditions are a national disgrace and a national scandal.
The name of Moylough is famous nationally. This is where the Moylough Belt Shrine, which is one of the great treasures in our National Museum was found. I am afraid that the name of Moylough is now likely to become infamous because of the desperate condition of the school there. This could very well be referred to as something of an ancient shrine or monument itself except that it is not as well preserved as was the Moylough Belt Shrine even though that was in the bog for centuries. I know the difficulties the Minister of State has in this respect. I know of the parsimonious allowance he was given by the Minister for Finance to provide for the building of schools at any level. Now, all over the west of Ireland the building of schools has practically ceased and schools are so rare on the ground that the sight of a new school being erected is likely to become a tourist attraction in the years ahead. However, even with the lack of money, Moylough is an exceptional case and the Minister for Finance who comes from the same constituency knows all about it.
There are three main problems. The first problem relates to the rats, a total plague of rats. There are about 90 pupils present during the school hours but if there was a roll call of the rats there after school hours they would far outnumber the pupils. The reason for this is the nature of the building. It is a building 100 years old and unfortunately it is a playground for rats. There is a soft timber floor and no sub-floor and there is the old style of wainscotting which means that there are vast spaces which constitute a playground for the rats. They frolic in these spaces during school hours and come out after school hours. I do not know if rats as a community go in for community centres, but if they do, it is certain that Moylough national school is the swinging centre for them in south Sligo.
It is not possible to exaggerate how bad the problem is. The rats have now become extremely bold and every day there is a competition as to who gets the lunch, the pupil who brought it in or the rat. The teacher is not immune to the attacks and despite the protection of his desk he has lost his lunch to the rats on occasion. The children cannot leave their schoolbags in one classroom while they move off to another otherwise their bags will be attacked. I have seen the attacks that have been made on the plastic protection around their lunches. I was very surprised to see that the rats in Moylough national school have a particular liking for soap although I do not know if they, have it for starters or for dessert. I have also seen the result of their activities in chewing their way through a three inch door during the Christmas holidays when the school was empty and through a television cable which was in their way.
Deputies might well ask, why they have not been exterminated and why some action has not been taken. The teachers, parents and local people have tried every known means to get at them but without success. They have tried traditional local methods and newer scientific methods with no result so far. Indeed, the plague of rats is on the increase. It is probably because of the nature of the ground underneath where they have free movement from perhaps a quarter of a mile away through the tunnels they have there now.
The second big problem with Moylough national school is a structural problem. The roof is leaking all over the place. The first thing that meets any visitor going in there and meets the pupils and teachers in the morning is a plastic bucket strategically placed to catch the rain. It is not a very pleasant sight to see in this day and age in a national school. No window in the entire school, either in the older part of the building which is about 100 years old or in the part built ten or 15 years ago, is capable of being opened. You can easily see the difficulties that creates especially during the summer.
The third difficulty is in regard to the toilets which are built in a block outside separate from the school in a particularly exposed area. In frost of any sort virtually the toilet blocks are frozen over and cannot be used by pupils or teachers. Fortunately, this winter was exceptionally mild and, as a result, no great difficulty was created in that respect. On the other hand, in a particularly wet winter such as we have had when the rain is falling the pupils have to wear wellingtons in order to get to the toilets. That is another difficulty.
I would like to emphasise to the Minister of State that this is not a question of repairs. It has been suggested that some essential repairs be done to tide things over until perhaps a new school could be built but this would be a total waste of money as the school is in such a bad condition. As it is over 100 years old it is beyond the period when repairs should be considered. That would be very foolish. Even in these times of tight finances it would be a false economy.
The people around Moylough are not a community given to agitation. They are willing to accept hardship and have been extraordinarily patient but they were finally driven to action. When they were driven to it they organised a very good campaign for representation to public representatives and otherwise but they were driven to it because they feared for the health of their sons and daughters, because of their natural anxiety for their welfare so that they could go through primary school in a relatively satisfactory manner. They were not looking for any sort of luxuries, just for basic requirements. They did not simply wait around as many communities might do for the Government to get them out of the difficulty. They collected a large sum of money for a small community and all the people gave very generously. Of course, they knew the exact situation there and they were quite willing to put their hands in their pockets and produce the necessary sum.
This is not an area of wealthy people by any means, though it has produced some very wealthy people but mainly they had to go abroad and emigrate to become wealthy in the first place. One of them went to this school and to whom I am glad to pay tribute was the late Matt Gallagher who gave the magnificent gift of the RHA Gallagher Gallery to this city of Dublin which will be opened now for the Millennium Year. It is one of the greatest gifts ever bestowed on the city.
The local people in their anxiety to get something done got the local builders, of whom there are a number in the area, to tackle the job at a greatly reduced cost, if the type of machinery required could be introduced for that. I understand there are difficulties in that regard but this indicates the great independent spirit of these people and their self-reliance which I suppose was born of the difficult circumstances in that area and in my native area of Aclare which is not very far away from there. Throughout the entire area of south Sligo are an independent proud people who are willing to do their share as far as their needs are concerned.
Another thing that should go on record here is that despite the awful conditions I am talking about, and no one will try to ignore them or pretend they are not awful, this has been an extremely successful school in all ways. The primary school has a very dedicated teaching staff under Brian Cahill and in its purpose as a centre of learning and teaching for the pupils who come there it has been very successful and able to compete in any type of examinations or otherwise with any other area throughout the country or in the west. It has been very successful at sports. In recent times the school won the Patrick Brennan Cup which is very much sought after among the schools of the area. It is called after a former master of Moylough school, Patrick Brennan, who became a legendary figure in GAA circles in Sligo. In his later years he was totally blind but he had such dedication to football that he continued to go Sunday after Sunday to all sorts of football matches, be they parish matches. championship matches or inter-county matches, always accompanied by a friend who acted as a reader of the match. He was one of the principals in the school and the school is living up to the great tradition he set as far as games of all sorts are concerned.
The school is one of the best in the county for music thanks to the dedicated staff there. On St. Patrick's Day just gone by a marching band from Moylough school aged from four years to about 14 years marched proudly down Fifth Avenue in New York as special guests in the St. Patrick's Day parade there. Of course, this was a tremendous thrill for the children to be part of what is by any standards one of the great ceremonial parades anywhere in the world. It was a glamorous day for Moylough parish and will go down in the history of the parish for all time. It was one of the historic days for the parish. The other such day in more distant times was when in 1945 the Moylough Belt Shrine was found in a bog near the school and became one of our great treasures. This year it will form part of a major Irish exhibition in Australia for the Bicentennial. The pupils in the band are now coming back and a great treat for the parents who were so proud of their children marching in that parade, many of whom went to the States with them, would be a simple announcement from the Minister of State tonight that he was willing to tackle the question of a new school for Moylough in the immediate future. That would be appreciated far more — though it is hard to believe — than the great honour of marching down Fifth Avenue for a young marching band is this ceremonial parade.
No argument at all can be made against the need for a new school in Moylough. There is an argument as far as finances are concerned but I know the Minister of State and the Minister got an extra £6 million — perhaps that had to be shared between primary and second level — but certain conditions were attached to that. I have read those conditions with great care and I believe Moylough national school would fit totally into every one of them. The Minister of State should seek to put some of the money into Moylough national school. If he cannot get it, if that money is already gone — I know the demands that exist all over the country for schools and they can put forward great needs — he should appeal or ask the Minister for Education to appeal to the Minister for Finance. He comes from the constituency of Sligo-Leitrim and knows of this school and I am sure he could not resist a plea if it came from the Minister for Education to do something about Moylough national school.
As I said, this is the area that gave our National Museum here beside us in Kildare Street the Moylough Belt Shrine, one of the great treasures there at the moment. The area is willing to do its share in providing the money necessary from subscriptions from the local community. Although I know the Department of Education have reservations about the machinery and I do not know if it would be the best idea, the local community are most conscious of the need to take exceptional steps in order to get a school fit for teaching in this day and age. The Moylough national school, as we know it, is not a fit place for the teaching of pupils. But teaching is going on there with great success despite the hardships and difficulties. The people are now asking that they be given a new school to which they believe they are entitled. They are not a people given to agitation. They only got involved in seeking the school through public representation and letter writing of one sort or another out of sheer desperation. I am sure the Minister of State has got some of these from the parents. I hope the Minister will have good news for me now with the announcement of an early start to Moylough national school.
