I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Shea, who is present in the House and who as a member of the Waterford Vocational Education Committee has given me great support on vocational education committee matters particularly.
As the Minister is aware, Drogheda Vocational Education Committee is the largest vocational education committee in any provincial town. It has been the most successful and fastest growing college over the past number of years. As I have said to three of the Minister's predecessors who have dealt with this issue, the vocational education committee, the parents' council and the people of Drogheda have been messed about — those are the best words I can use — by the Department of Education. I will explain my reasons for saying this presently.
As the Minister is aware, there is a serious overcrowding problem in the school. Approval for an extension was granted by the Department of Education on 20 June last and six additional rooms were provided for in that grant, based on a pupil population of 1,100. At present there are 1,068 pupils in the school which was built to accommodate 800 students. This is causing a serious accommodation crisis with no rooms available for classes.
Some classes are held in offices, storerooms and the library. This intolerable situation was accepted on the strict understanding that the extension would be built by now. I should like to quote a letter dated 20 June 1991 from the Minister's Department. It states:
A chara,
I refer to recent meetings and discussions concerning the accommodation situation at St. Laurence's Vocational School, Drogheda. The matter has been fully considered and the Department is satisfied that additional accommodation is warranted and proposes the following spaces to meet the immediate and long-term commitments of the school: four general classrooms at 190m2; one science laboratory at 91m2; one home economics room at 86m2; and a circulation area of 43m2; giving a total area of 410m2. It is intended that this accommodation will be provided urgently by way of minimum cost masonry type structure requiring the services of an architect only.
In addition, the Department is approving the furnishing and equipping of the existing language room at St. Oliver's to provide for a language laboratory.
On receipt of your Committee's acceptance of the foregoing proposals the Department will write to you further regarding the procedures for detailed implementation.
As I said, that letter was dated 20 June 1991. I put down a number of parliamentary questions to the Minister for Education on this matter to which I will refer briefly.
Two hundred and eighty-two students are already enrolled in the school for next September. However, only 127 students will leave the school after their leaving certificate. This means that 120-150 students will inevitably have to be turned away unless the extension is built immediately. All second level schools in the Drogheda area are full to capacity, including the other vocational education committee school, St. Laurence's. I should say that promises were made before one general election that permission would be given to purchase a site for a new school. Of course, that promise was withdrawn fairly quickly after the election.
The Vocational Education Committee Parents' Council are extremely anxious to give guidance to parents of incoming students about the likely outcome of this serious situation. However, they cannot give any guarantees about the building of the extension until such time as they get the go ahead from the Department of Education. Approval to proceed to the next stage of this project is urgently awaited as the matter of accommodation at St. Oliver's College is already critical. Over a period of time the vocational education committee have endeavoured to have a deputation received by the Minister for Education but have failed to do so. At a special meeting of the committee held on 23 March the principal of St. Oliver's College informed the committee that it would be physically impossible to accommodate the number of students seeking entry to the college in September 1992 unless the approved extension was completed. The committee also examined the primary school numbers and the number of post-primary places available in Drogheda. It was noted that in excess of 160 students would be without accommodation in second level schools in September 1992 and that this trend would continue. Therefore, I suggest to the Minister that the future of the children of the Drogheda and east Meath areas rests in the hands of the Department of Education. I ask the Minister to indicate clearly his intention to allow this extension work to proceed.
