I am glad to see the Minister in the House. In fairness to him, he gave me a commitment a number of months ago that he would try to make progress with this school. He did his job and I accept that. I am afraid, however, that the officials in his Department did not do their job.
In September we were disappointed again that the children of Carrakennedy had to go into a community hall, which we were lucky to have, to be taught. They will be going in there in the winter, cold, miserable and wet, having to cross a very dangerous road. I am disappointed with the officials in the Minister's Department. I hold them responsible. They have not dealt with this. I am only talking about a small extension. In my area I have seen holiday villages, hotels and developments of 30 houses designed, planned, permitted, built and occupied within six months. We are six months down the road and we have not reached the planning stage within the Department. I ask the Minister – not for me, not for the political system, but for the children that have to attend Carrakennedy school – to make a telephone call to his officials and tell them to deal with this serious problem.
We do not want the situation to arise where we are both here again before Christmas after I have contacted the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's office to call for an Adjournment debate to see what is happening. I ask the Minister to do what he did before. The money was sanctioned and we were told that these children would be in the school by Christmas. They will not be there by Christmas 2001 with what is happening now. I ask the Minister to intervene immediately.
Yesterday the school had to call someone from the health board because there was a problem with mice. It is not nice and it is not right to have young children being taught in facilities like that. It is not a big job – I am not looking for a new school, just an extension.
I congratulate the members of this community. The Minister's Department asked them for a contribution. It was such an emergency that the small community held dances and had raised the money in a shot because everyone realised there was a problem in the area. It is one of the few rural areas where people are building houses and moving in. They will not, however, stay there for long if they do not have the same facilities as towns.
I ask the Minister to ask his officials, as a matter of priority, to do what must be done. It is not acceptable that it has taken six months to get to this stage. The least the public service could do is push this on.
