Deputy Mary Flaherty has been given permission to raise on the Adjournment the question of accommodation in St. Aidan's School.
Adjournment Debate. - Dublin School Accommodation.
I thank you for the opportunity of raising this issue. Because of commitments the Minister has and because it is towards the end of the session I will try to be brief.
St. Aidan's School in Whitehall is well known to a number of Deputies in this House. Indeed, a number of the Minister of State's frontbench colleagues are past pupils of this school, for instance, the Minister for Labour is a former past pupil and one of their shining lights, and I have no doubt that he will have briefed the Minister of State on the present position in regard to that school. This school was set up 20 years ago in temporary premises on Collins Avenue and serves a catchment area of Santry and Whitehall. It is the only second level boys' school in the area and serves along with the nearby VEC college the catchment area of Santry and Whitehall. The school authorities are still awaiting the erection of a permanent structure. Negotiations are taking place with the Department. While the school currently has 700 pupils it is estimated that because of population changes the number will fall to between 400 and 500. Discussions on the erection of a school to cater for that number of pupils are taking place with the Department of Education. Site surveys were carried out in December 1987 and the results of these surveys have been with the Department since then. The only response from the Department to request made for further information from the school authorities, parents and public representatives has been that the matter is receiving attention. There has been no progress since the carrying out of the site surveys.
The school authorities need the sanction of the Minister so as to move ahead with the planning stages. At this stage the Minister would not need to commit himself to making funds available but by giving his sanction he will allow them to get organised. It is absolutely essential that they start to make progress because the present building is in a very bad state of repair. An IIRS survey was carried out in 1981-82 and this indicated that there was severe wet rot throughout the building and that repairing and maintaining that building was a shameful use of public or private funds. Because water was seeping into every classroom in the school the authorities had to replace the roof and this roof only has a life span of ten years. Between five and six years of that life span have now passed and it should be pointed out that that new roof was placed over woodwork which was rotting away.
The constant expenditure of funds on this school cannot be justified. Language classes are being held in hallways. There is now an urgent need to act due to the state of the building and the folly of pouring more money into the school. This school serves a catchment area stretching into Beaumont and over a number of constituencies. Therefore, a number of Deputies will be familiar with the school but they have been very quiet in regard to it. The Minister for Industry and Commerce and for Communications, Deputy Burke, was in the area during the week to open an art exhibition and I am sure the opportunity was taken to make him aware of the problems. I am aware that Deputies from the Government party and Deputies from neighbouring constituencies have been involved and I believe that the school authorities have made their case in a very calm way but they are beginning to get upset and angry because conditions in the school have deteriorated. Even if we were to begin phase one of the planning process it will be at least two to three years before the first brick is laid. Therefore it is absolutely essential that progress be made as quickly as possible and I hope that the Minister of State will be able to give us a positive response to the case I have made here tonight.
I call on Deputy De Rossa and I am sure he heard my appeal for brevity.
That will be no problem. Although you are not in a position to say so, A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am sure you would be anxious to be associated with the case being made here tonight.
Please speak for me on this occasion.
I am sure that you are concerned about the appalling condition of St. Aidan's School. Unfortunately, this school does not stand alone in respect of the position in which it finds itself. I had occasion during the summer to visit schools outside the Dublin area and came across some in as bad a condition as St. Aidan's. Nevertheless it is important that Deputy Flaherty raise this issue and bring to the notice of the Minister of State that within the boundaries of Dublin city where it is assumed people have everything and that all kinds of mod cons are available there is an important second level school housed in prefabricated buildings which are literally falling apart. As Deputy Flaherty said, the authorities in this school have been extremely patient and quiet in the way in which they have gone about making representations. The Minister of State should not assume that just because they have been quiet and we have been patient the issue is not in any way urgent. I appeal to him to take steps to have this problem rectified as quickly as possible.
An extension to bring the pupil capacity of this school up to 575 pupils has been sanctioned by my Department. Stage one, the site feasibility report, is presently under examination in the Department's building unit. The remaining stages of planning are: stage two, outline sketch scheme; stage three, development sketch plan; stage 4, working drawings; stage five, bills of quantities; and, stage six, tender action and report. The total new area to be provided is 2,861 meters and the estimated cost of the project is £1.9 million approximately. However, the rate at which the planning of this project may proceed depends on the availability of capital resources and the other commitments and priorities of my Department.
I take the points made by both Deputies that the present accommodation at this school is not satisfactory. Unfortunately, it is only one of 300 projects at various stages of planning in the Department of Education and because of this a backlog has built up with many projects such as this being held up. Because of budget constraints I cannot give my commitment as to what progress will be made but I will take into account the points which have been made by Deputies tonight and I will go back to the officials in my Department to ask them to take another look at this particular project.
Let me draw the Minister of State's attention to one disturbing fact brought to my attention by the authorities in the school. The Minister of State referred to the building of an extension. It is not an extension that is required but rather a replacement school. None of the buildings are permanent and all are in a similar condition. We are not talking about the provision of additional buildings but rather a replacement school. I would ask the Minister of State to bring this fact to the notice of the officials in his Department and to respond on that point. It is inapproprriate to describe as an extension what is required and I extend an invitation to the Minister of State and his officials to visit the school in the near future to see the present state of the buildings. We will all be happy to accompany the Minister of State to make sure that he sees the right spots.
The Dáil adjourned at 8.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 16 December 1988.