I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. St. Brendan's national school, Blennerville, County Kerry, was closed on Thursday last because of rat infestation. One of the classrooms in which rat droppings were found is used for the teaching of infants. The principal had hoped to reopen the school yesterday but was advised by an environmental officer from the Southern Health Board that it could not be reopened until Monday next. Every room in the school must be sealed and sanitised before the children are allowed to return.
St. Brendan's national school is 70 years old and consists of four classrooms, one temporary type classroom, which was provided in 2003, one portacabin, which is used as a resource teacher room and one portacabin which is divided in half, with one half used as a staffroom and storeroom and the other used as a learning support room. The campaign to have conditions improved at the school has been going on for the past ten years. In 1998, the Office of Public Works drew up a plan to renovate the school at a cost of approximately £300,000. This idea was rejected by the Department of Education and Science's building inspector who claimed that it would be a waste of time and money.
In 2000, an application by the board of management for a new school was approved by the Department and the Office of Public Works was asked to purchase a suitable site. A senior official in the Office of Public Works, having had all the relevant tests carried out and arranged a number of pre-planning meetings with Kerry County Council regarding future planning for the school, successfully negotiated the purchase of such a site. The full report on the proposed site was presented to the Department of Education and Science by the Office of Public Works in December 2002. However, no apparent progress has been made since and St. Brendan's did not figure on the list of schools that was published by the Department of Education and Science earlier this year in respect of which works are to proceed.
At present, there are 125 pupils, five mainstream teachers, one resource teacher and one learning support teacher, whose services are shared with another school, trying to learn and teach under these unacceptable conditions. The school is simply too small and the classrooms are cramped, generally half the size of a normal classroom. Toilet facilities are basic and are constantly overstretched and in need of remedial work. There is no storeroom for school equipment and valuable classroom space must be used for this purpose. The school is situated on the N86, a very busy road, with no set-down area for parents dropping off or collecting children and there is no parking area provided for teachers' cars.
St. Brendan's is on the INTO list of schools in need of urgent replacement. It is obvious that the school does not meet departmental standards. The school authorities are constantly paying out large amounts of money for its maintenance. They have spent over €5,000 since September to this end but the building is impossible to maintain. The principal and his staff are dedicated and conscientious teachers. They are highly regarded and respected by the parents of their pupils and have worked in totally unacceptable conditions for many years. It is time to cut through the bureaucracy and stonewalling, to purchase the approved site and to provide the much needed new school immediately.
The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, will reject the idea that a school could be rat infested in this day and age and will claim that the maintenance grant should be sufficient to ensure that no such infestation should occur. However, despite the fact that the authorities at Blennerville are spending more money than is provided by means of their maintenance grant, it is impossible to ensure that the school is not infested with rats. The problem is not their fault, the building is substandard, outdated and has long outlived its usefulness. Despite the best efforts of the principal and the teachers, it is simply impossible, in light of the current level of grant provided, to maintain this school to an acceptable standard.
I appeal to the Minister of State to bring to the Minister's attention the embarrassment caused to the Department of Education and Science today when national newspapers printed stories about a rat infested school in Kerry. That is just not acceptable. The solution rests in the hands of the Department, the Minister and the Government.
