Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 25 Feb 1993

Vol. 426 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Health and Education Matters.

Mr. Nealon

The waiting lists at Sligo General Hospital are such that the orthopaedic surgeons there felt compelled, under the new patients charter, to take the very unusual step of writing to the patients on these lists for hip and other operations to apologise for the delays.

They listed five problems preventing more operations, insufficient operating time available; insufficient anaesthetic time allocated to orthopaedics; no provision for additional nursing staff; no plans for a second "clean air" theatre for joint replacements, fracture fixation, and other surgery and no protection of orthopaedic beds to ensure that planned admissions were not cancelled.

They were also hit by the seasonal ward closures in December and in August adding further to the already unacceptable long waiting lists. The Minister may tell us that an extra £20 million has been provided in the budget for the reduction of hospital waiting lists. Presumably he will not tell me about his own mini-budget the previous day raising the hospital charges to pay for this. They were introduced by a Minister who was totally against any charges in principle. What difference will the extra money mean to the health services and the North Western Health Board area? I am told it will be very little.

Will the additional nursing staff be provided to facilitate more operations? Will the extra anaesthetic time be allocated as sought by the orthopaedic surgeons? Will the second "clean air" theatre come? Will the wards be closed down in summer and at Christmas, effectively taking off one fourth of the whole year? My understanding is that the wards will continue to close. Because of the special needs in the Sligo General Hospital area and in the north west, and the aging population there should be a special allocation from the additional money. If we simply get a proportion based on the population then this supposed attack on the waiting list will have little or no effect on those who are waiting two, three or four years for a hip operation. People who are suffering like that are waiting a long time for the postman.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Mr. O'Dea)

As the Deputy is aware, there has been significant investment in hospital services in the North-Western Health Board region in recent years, I might add, more so than in the case of my health board area.

Prior to 1990, there were two orthopaedic surgeons working in the North-Western Health Board region, both based at Sligo General Hospital.

The North-Western Health Board identified and agreed the need to establish an orthopaedic service in Letterkenny General Hospital. Comhairle na nOspidéal and the Department of Health approved the appointment of an orthopaedic surgeon for Letterkenny and an extra orthopaedic surgeon for Sligo. There are now four orthopaedic surgeons in posts serving that region. Equipping the new 22-bed unit at Letterkenny cost £600,000 and an extra £1 million per year was allocated to run the unit. The orthopaedic unit was opened in April 1992.

In the context of the major new facilities in Sligo General Hospital, additional funding was allocated in 1992 for the further development of a range of services at the hospital, including the expansion of orthopaedic services and the phased development of ENT services. In spite of these significant developments in the North-Western Health Board region, I am aware there are still a number of people having to wait longer than they should for their operations.

As the Deputy is aware also the Government has allocated £20 million for a major action programme to reduce waiting times in the areas of orthopaedic surgery, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat surgery, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery and plastic surgery. The overall objectives is to eliminate waiting lists in excess of 12 months in these specialties and to set a maximum period of six months for children awaiting ENT or eye treatment.

The Minister for Health will announce his decisions in regard to the allocation of the £20 million in coming weeks. The Deputy can be assured that he will be considering the position of the North-Western Health Board as sympathetically as possible.

Mr. Nealon

I wish to thank the Minister.

Mr. Nealon

St. Mary's boys national school, Carrick-on-Shannon has 120 pupils and four teachers. The school building comprises three classrooms and one prefab. By any standards, the accommodation is in a deplorable state of repair. The windows are rotten and unable to retain the glass. The roof of the prefab is leaking. The furniture is antiquated, there is no floor covering. Ventilation in the classrooms is very poor because the windows cannot be opened. The roof of the corridor is leaking and all around there is evidence of rat infestation.

I understand that even the Department of Education accept that the building is not a fit place now for school purposes. Major renovation and extension work is needed. This has been promised, and solemnly promised, particularly at election time. In total frustration at the inaction, the INTO members went on official strike last week, with the full backing of the parents. I understand the Minister has decided to transfer the pupils to vacated classrooms near the girl's national school but I am not sure this will mean amalgamation.

This suggestion to dodge the responsibility of giving adequate school accommodation to Carrick-on-Shannon will not wash. The rooms suggested were vacated because they were substandard. There is no suitable playground and the noise level is excessive because of a major road nearby. One cannot solve one substandard school accommodation problem by simply moving to another location.

The people of Carrick-on-Shannon demand that the promises made be honoured. There is no need to put forward further points to justify their case. The building makes the argument for me and does so eloquently. The Minister of State, who is present, should give a date when funds will be made available and when work will start on this building.

Minister of State at the Department of Education (Mr. Aylward)

This matter was the subject of a Adjournment Debate in the Seanad last Thursday and also the subject of a parliamentary question today.

I am glad the Deputy has afforded me the opportunity of outlining to the House the position regarding St. Mary's boys' national school, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. The present accommodation at this school consists of three permanent classrooms and one prefabricated classroom. The staff is comprised of a principal, three assistant teachers, and its current enrolment is 117 pupils.

On foot of the application which had been made to my Department for the provision of a permanent extension my Department had approved a major building project which would have involved the retention of two of the existing classrooms, conversion of the third classroom into a staffroom/library and the construction of two further permanent classrooms. The estimated cost of the project would be at least £90,000. Architectural planning had commenced and planning permission was received from the local authority.

However, an option which has to be considered at this stage in the light of up-to-date information is whether the school should be amalgamated with the girls national school. This arises in the context of surplus accommodation known to exist in the girls' national school and in the light of projected future enrolments.

Preliminary indications are that probably there would be sufficient accommodation in the convent national school to accommodate, with adaptation and development, the entire boys and girls primary school population in the town.

The Deputy will appreciate that it behoves my Department, in its administration of the capital resources available, to utilise them effectively in providing adequate standards of accommodation for our primary school population. This has to include the full utilisation of all good accommodation which already exists and which has been provided for in the past by capital allocations from my Department.

My Department must provide facilities in a way that does not duplicate them or result in significant surplus unused accommodation within a short number of years.

Such an approach is a necessary part of the strategy of directing the funds at our disposal to those projects most needed and where justified by a continuing need in future years.

In the light of the foregoing my Department is in consultation with the relevant school authorities in order to decide on the appropriate course of action regarding the provision of primary school accommodation needs for the future in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Mr. Crowley

I am glad to have the opportunity to raise the question of remedial teachers at Milford primary school, Charleville, County Cork. Perhaps I will be allowed to broaden it because there is not an adequate acknowledgement of the work that remedial teachers do in primary schools. In this school I understand that one-third of the children are in urgent need of remedial teaching. If this facility is not provided now I suggest the children will be deprived in secondary school and will be unlikely to get into third level education. It is not fair, right or just to deprive these children of this important facility. Due to deprivation, unemployment and social problems in the area the number of children in need is substantially higher than the average. The Minister should give approval for a remedial teacher as a matter of urgency. I am not seeking a full-time remedial teacher for Milford or Tullylease but rather part-time teachers for two hours per day. That is not an unreasonable request; it is fair and just and the children of that area are entitled to such a service.

Mr. Aylward

I thank Deputy Crowley for raising this matter. My Department is currently examining the scope for the employment of additional teaching resources for children with special education needs. The question of remedial teaching posts will form a key element in this consideration. In this connection the Programme for a Partnership Government provides for the recruitment of 500 remedial teachers by September 1996. I assure the Deputy that the needs of the school referred to by him will be borne in mind when it is next possible to make remedial teacher appointments. I take the point made by the Deputy in relation to the sharing of a remedial teacher.

The needs of the school referred to by the Deputy will also be considered in the context of any extension to the special scheme of assistance for schools designated areas of disadvantage.

Mr. Barrett

I wish to raise the question of the replacement of the roof at Cabinteely community school. More than two years ago it was agreed both by the school architect and the Department's architect that the roof needed replacing. However, we are waiting since. The estimated cost of this work is approximately £50,000. The mineral felt which was put on the roof in 1978 when the school was built is in need of replacement. Water lodges in the valley of the roof and seeps through to the Art Room. The art teacher has to use a plastic bucket to catch the drips of water. The building has been damaged purely because of neglect and that is a scandal and will cost the taxpayer more money if urgent repairs are not carried out. Two years is long enough to wait for a replacement roof. The school authorities carried out temporary works during the past couple of years at a cost of £5,000, but it is like throwing money out the window because it does not solve the problem. Contractors have been chosen to carry out this work and I ask the Minister to give a commitment that approximately £50,000 will be made available immediately to carry out these urgent repairs.

Mr. Aylward

I thank Deputy Barrett for raising this matter which was the subject of a parliamentary question.

At the outset I would like to explain that my Department accepts that work is needed to the roof at Cabinteely community school. The difficulty has been the level of funds available to tackle the huge number of urgent projects needing attention.

The work to the roof at this school will cost almost £50,000 and so the project is quite a significant one. It has been the Department's policy in recent times to attempt to respond to the urgent requirements for classroom accommodation in many areas and accordingly the limited funds available have been devoted to that purpose.

Accordingly, it has not been possible to include the remedial work to the roof at Cabinteely in the 1993 second level capital programme because of other demands, as I have explained, being deemed to be of a higher priority and having to take precedence. The work involved will continue to be considered for inclusion in the programme in the light of available resources and other commitments and priorities. Every effort will be made to accommodate repairs in the current year because of the nature of the repairs involved.

Mr. M. Kitt

I should like to raise the question of improvements to Kilglass national school, Ahascragh, Ballinasloe, a three-teacher school with 89 children. At present there is a temporary partition in one classroom, resulting in two small classrooms. The proposal is to build a third classroom and to convert the existing three classrooms into two classrooms. There is an urgent need for cloakrooms and toilets also. The estimated cost of the work is in the region of £65,000 but that sum may have to be increased as the project has been under discussion for a number of years. I hope the Minister will treat this as a priority. There has been much speculation that it will not be dealt with at present. A small library and health room is required also. I hope those elements of the project can be put together and money provided for it in 1993.

Mr. Aylward

I thank Deputy Kitt for raising this matter.

The improvements proposed to my Department for Kilglass national school consists of the provision of a new permanent classroom, together with staff room and other ancillary accommodation, including a new toilet block, the conversion of two of the existing classrooms and the refurbishment of the existing building.

This project is at an early stage of the planning process. A sketch scheme is currently in course of preparation. When this has been completed the school authority will be advised to seek planning permission from the local authority.

Subject to receipt of planning permission, working drawings will then have to be prepared and a fire safety certificate obtained before architectural planning of the project is concluded. As the physical planning process is unlikely to be completed in the current financial year the question of including this project among the projects approved to date for inclusion in the 1993 national school capital programme does not arise.

However, I wish to assure the Deputy that this project will continue to be considered for inclusion in the programme in due course in the light of available resources and other commitments and priorities.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 26 February 1993.