Vol. 404 No. 9
13 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education the present position in relation to St. Joseph's Special School for the Mentally Handicapped, Snipe Avenue, Newcastle, Galway; whether it is proposed to now go to tender for the new building, as indicated in late 1990 by the Minister of State at her Department; and if she will say when the work is likely to start on the new school.
20 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Education when the tender documents for the erection of a special school for the handicapped at St. Joseph's, Snipe Avenue, Galway will be signed; when the building of the school will commence; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 20 together.
I share the Deputy's concern at having adequate and suitable accommodation made available for these children at the earliest possible date.
While work is proceeding on the planned building project — it is hoped to have it completed in the very near future — it has come to my attention that there may be an alternative which would offer a more satisfactory and immediate solution. Urgent discussions are now taking place with interested parties in Galway to test the feasibility of this alternative.
May I ask the Minister of State if he will give some more details of the alternative to which he referred and so if he will address that part of my question which relate to the status of the undertaking he gave to parents and staff in relation to the building of the school?
I am not in a position to give details of the alternative at this stage as it is the subject of discussions with a number of authorities in Galway. The undertakings given by myself to the staff and the parents of the special school are being adhered to as far as possible. I accept that there have been some delays in regard to the planning of the school. However, it is anticipated that the planning will be completed in the very near future.
I should like to be very clear on this point. My question asked when work will commence on this school. Do I take it, therefore, that the school proposal for which people expected tender documents to be issued is now frozen while the alternative, of which the Minister speaks, is being discussed? If that is the case — or if that is not the case — when will either the previous committed school or the alternative be available? Of what time scale are we speaking about?
The planning of the school has not been stopped or frozen. It is pretty well completed at this stage with some minor works to be carried out. It is hoped that the examination which at present is being undertaken will be complete in a very short time and that within the next few weeks a final decision will be taken in relation to the submission of the file to the Minister in order to get approval to go to tender. We do not anticipate any major delays in regard to the commencement of the provision of a new school for St. Joseph's Special School. Everybody accepts it is a very urgent case and that the accommodation there is totally inadequate.
I am calling Deputy McCormack whose Question No. 20 is related.
I am astonished at the Minister's reply because he gave a completely different reply to the parents and teachers which was to the effect that the building would go to tender in December. Is the Minister aware that there are at present 86 pupils, who are moderately handicapped between the ages of six years and 18 years from all over the city and county being catered for in pre-fabricated buildings which were leaking during the recent inclement weather? Is he aware that it is impossible for teachers and pupils to continue on in those circumstances? Are mentally handicapped pupils being treated as second class citizens? It is all right to postpone this project and say, "We are looking at something else", but why was he not looking at something else when he gave the promise that this school was going to tender last December? Is the Minister aware——
The Deputy has made his point.
I have one further question. Is he aware that an inspector from the Western Health Board visited the school within the last two weeks and condemned it as the temperature there was 13º centigrade when 20º centigrade was the recommended level of heat? It is impossible to keep heat in pre-fabricated buildings.
The planning process of this school has been much faster than the normal planning process for primary schools. I agree with everything the Deputy has said about the condition of this school. I have a file in front of me which contains four years of letter-writing to the previous Government and when we came into office there was not even a suggestion——
That is the answer given to me every time.
If the Deputy would listen I will explain what causes the present difficulty. There was not even a suggestion that a new school should be built——
Until I took it up.
——when the Deputy's party were in Government. It was an utter disgrace to have allowed the shanty-town of pre-fabricated classrooms deteriorate to such an extent over the last ten years. While I agree with what the Deputy has said, the position is that a new school should have been built in this location five years ago. When we came to office it was at the stage where it would take ten years to build a new school on the basis of the priority it had when the Deputy's party left office.
We had four years of inaction. I only took up the matter when I was elected four years ago. We had made very slow progress.
We have made a lot of progress since.
Thank you, Minister.
