Thank you, Sir, for giving me permission to raise this most urgent matter. There is an appalling accommodation shortage in the Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel. It is alarming that the school cannot accept first year pupils in September 1994 unless the Department takes action. Is there any other town in Ireland that cannot provide a secondary education for the boys in its catchment area? This is the serious situation facing the principal, staff and the parents of prospective pupils in Clonmel.
This is not the first time that such facts have been presented to the Department of Education. In June 1992 I rose in this House to put those points to the then Minister for Education, but the facts that those of us who represent the people of Clonmel put to the Minister were not taken as reality. We are now approaching a crisis and September 1994 is the deadline. Unless classroom accommodation is provided by the Department of Education, pupils cannot enrol in the Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel to begin their first year of secondary education.
Furthermore, the Minister for Education has set out guidelines for enrolment in secondary schools in which she rightly states that she disagrees with entrance tests. However, what is the option before the principal in this school? How can he offer places to pupils when he has not got the classrooms? The Christian Brothers High School has refused entry to 301 students over the past five years. That means that 60 students each year have been refused a place in the school. Research has shown that there will be in excess of 100 students wishing to enter this school each year for the next ten years.
A decision is needed before Christmas because accommodation must be provided for September 1994. To date, the Department has offered a grant of only £60,000 for four pre-fab classrooms. The principal, staff, the board of management and the parents have refused pre-fab accommodation and I stand by their refusal. They want permanent accommodation because they know there will be sufficient students to fill the additional accommodation that will be provided.
I ask the Minister to share the anger, the worry and concern of those of us who represent Clonmel and to appreciate the impossible situation in which the principal finds himself and to share also the enormous anger of the parents. Where will students in Clonmel go to school in 1994? All we are looking for is over £100,000 to build four permanent classrooms to get us out of what I would call the most impossible situation that a school has had to confront. It is unreal that as we approach the next century students in a town like Clonmel will not be able to go to school in the Christian Brothers High School in September 1994. The Christmas season is approaching and I ask the Minister to give us good news because the people of Clonmel need this news.
Deputy Ferris rose.