I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the extremely generous way he has facilitated me tonight and for permitting me to raise with the Minister for Education the need for the Department to immediately allocate funding for the provision of a new school at St. Cronan's, in Bray, County Wicklow. I thank the Minister of State for attending in the House at this late hour to debate with me this very important issue.
I am saddened and more than a little angry at the lack of attention my constituency of Wicklow has received in recent years in the area of education. I have spent a considerable period complaining that the economic boom is passing County Wicklow by and nowhere is this more evident than in the area of education. We were building schools and school extensions in County Wicklow in the lean and hungry years of the late eighties and early nineties. Now, in these affluent times when the economy is booming, no funding for education is coming Wicklow's way. It is an extraordinary situation and impossible to comprehend. It is also unacceptable.
As regards St. Cronan's, a number of simple factors have combined so that children of a modern town are educated in conditions which bear more resemblance to the era of the hedge schools than to what one might expect would be provided by the Government in a modern developed economy. If our children are our future, then surely we should be prepared to invest in them, not just with a view to reaping a reward, but to nurture them and give practical meaning to the noble aspirations of our Constitution. The case is simply put, so I do not intend to allow my message to be lost in a long winded speech.
St. Cronan's has 333 pupils and 13 teachers: ten class teachers, one remedial and one resource teacher and the principal. Some six classes are in prefabs, the newest of which is about 14 years old, the oldest more than 20. There are only four proper classrooms. Urine leaks from the first floor toilets to the floor below. There is no fire exit from upstairs classes. The staff room was built for eight teachers and now accommodates 13. It is also the venue for cookery classes and is used to receive any visitors who come to the school. There is only one teacher toilet at which teachers frequently have to queue. The equipment storage room is a shed, which is not overburdened because the school has no proper PE equipment as the hall is too small. These are but a few of the worst problems affecting the school. The situation is aggravated by the fact that much of the school comprises temporary accommodation in dire need of improvement. Repairs, however, would be futile as most of this accommodation is beyond repair. In any event, funding for these critical repairs is not forthcoming from the Department because the school is included in the capital programme. This is a dilemma.
Although this school is in the garden county of Wicklow, improvements in road infrastructure in the past ten years mean it is effectively in a suburb of Dublin where the population has mushroomed. The demographic picture in south Bray is one where there are hundreds, if not thousands, of new houses. These are occupied for the most part by young couples who will probably have school-going children in a few years. The current need is pressing but demographic projections and the rate at which progress has been made to date suggests a crisis will shortly arise.
I do not seek to engage in political point-scoring but only wish to use this opportunity to bring to the Minister's attention the dire need to provide accommodation at St. Cronan's and to ensure it lends itself to expansion in future to meet the projected needs of the area in the next five to ten years. I also seek an unqualified commitment from the Minister that the necessary funding will be provided without further delay and that she will formally announce this commitment now or before the Dáil adjourns this week.
I pay tribute to the parents and staff at the school who have done all that is humanly possible to ensure that, despite the deplorable conditions, the children receive the best possible education.
