I welcome the Minister of State for all seasons and all topics, Deputy Jacob. I do not think he has left the Dáil all day. I know he is Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise but he is exceeding himself today. I hope he will relay my message to the Minister for Education and Science on behalf of the parents of the children in St. Patrick's senior national school, Skerries.
In September 1999 that school had an enrolment of 369 pupils, just one short of qualifying immediately for an extra teacher. However, this enrolment figure qualifies it automatically for an extra teacher in September 2000. On 7 September 1999 the principal of the school wrote to the Department of Education and Science pointing out that it would need an additional room to accommodate the extra teacher. Despite numerous telephone calls to the Department, and courteous treatment during those telephone calls, absolutely no action has been taken by the Department to confirm the provision of a prefabricated classroom to accommodate the extra teacher.
The principal of the senior national school is well aware of the difficulties, even when a school is eligible for the extra teacher, because St. Patrick's junior national school in a previous year had qualified for an extra teacher but no accommodation was provided. Therefore, the junior school was not able to take the extra teacher, unless it was willing to divide up classes which it did not wish to do. In other words, the principal of the junior school was left in the invidious position of not taking on an extra teacher which would have allowed smaller classes versus taking on the extra teacher, disrupting the rest of the school and losing a general purposes area.
Despite the requests no inspection has been carried out to St. Patrick's senior national school since September 1999 so that a decision can be made to go ahead with the provision of the extra classroom. I call on the Minister to instruct an inspector to visit the school and give the go-ahead for the extra classroom. I do not want to see the senior school in the same position as the junior school and having to refuse an extra teacher due to a lack of accommodation. The parents will be deeply unhappy if this happens.
The appointment of the additional teacher will enable the school to reduce the current third classes from three units of 36, 35 and 34 pupils into four units of approximately 26 pupils each. The lack of a decision is the most serious point I wish to stress to the Minister of State. I cannot understand why the Department, on the instruction of the Minister, cannot give the go-ahead for this classroom. The general purposes area is not available to be turned into a classroom. National schools should be allowed to keep their general purposes areas which are used for all sorts of activities, such as parent meetings, project work, confirmation meetings, PE, dancing, school Masses and many other necessary activities.
Another point I wish to raise with the Minister of State is that in early 1999 the Office of Public Works assessed the condition of the flat roof in this school and declared that it needed to be repaired immediately. The school prepared quotes through the Office of Public Works which were submitted to the Department of Education and Science last autumn. Again to date absolutely no action has been taken. No approval has been given for the repairs to be carried out even though rain is getting in through at least one corner of the roof. The Office of Public Works indicated there is a severe need for attention to the roof. I ask the Minister of State to consider this matter.
Another issue that will arise if the school management is forced to turn the general purposes area into a classroom is that there are no toilet facilities available in that area. There is a staff of 14 teachers and six other adults in the school and they will have to relinquish some of their toilets if the general purposes room becomes a classroom. The school budget will not be able to stretch to providing furniture for the conversion of the general purposes room into a classroom. I would like confirmation from the Minister that he will approve not just the provision of the prefabricated classroom but of furniture to furnish the classroom. There is very little time to make a decision as the planning procedure will have to be followed and the classroom will have to be erected before the beginning of the September 2000 term. I urge the Minister to take immediate action on this serious problem.
