Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 9 Oct 2007

Vol. 639 No. 1

Shannon Airport.

Deputy Pat Breen

I am sorry the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, is not here to take this very important matter. It shows the way he treats it. However, I am delighted the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, is here on his behalf. Being a Tipperary woman, she will be very supportive of what I have to say.

Weekend media reports reveal the Minister for Transport and the Marine is about to appoint two new directors to the board of Aer Lingus with a mandate to block the transfer of Heathrow slots from Cork and Dublin Airports and is set to abandon Shannon Airport to the west. We all welcome the move to safeguard the slots at Cork and Dublin Airports but to abandon Shannon Airport and leave the entire region without connectivity to Heathrow is unbelievable and will not be accepted in the region.

The Minister for Transport and the Marine told us we were exaggerating. When he finally accepted there was a crisis, he said there was nothing he could do about it. The Minister has told us it is too late for Shannon, but it is not. Two weeks ago in the House, the Minister said the Government believed it would be inappropriate to intervene in the decision-making of a private company and that to do so ultimately would be damaging both to the company and its customers. I remind the Minister for Transport and the Marine that he also said shareholders do not have the power to overrule management decisions on business matters. He said this was based on legal advice. Will he publish this legal advice so we can examine it? It is extraordinary that the legal advice last week was that one cannot intervene but that, this week, the Minister will appoint two board members and, as quoted in the newspapers, he will not give management carte blanche in regard to what it could do with the slots. The Minister, however, will not intervene in the Shannon issue.

Last week during the debate on Aer Lingus there were rumours that a new airline was coming into Shannon and that a deal would be done in the near future, but the reality is very different. Anybody who knows the airline business will know that BMI had already committed two fleets flying long-haul to the Middle East and would not be in a position to change its aircraft rotations in respect of any incentive it was offered. The rumour was just a face-saving spin coming from the Government.

The Minister is to appoint two directors to Aer Lingus which he should have done on his first day in office. However, he failed to realise how important this was until my colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, pointed it out to him. Will the Minister appoint somebody from the mid-west to the board? The mid-west has been marginalised at Government and board levels. While various Government Deputies in the mid-west were happy to jump up and down in constituencies and talk about the issue, none stood by us in terms of their commitments when there was a crucial vote last week. It is important the mid-west is given a voice at board level in Aer Lingus. It would provide a direct input for the region at the forthcoming extraordinary general meeting to discuss fleet expansion.

Already a number of investments in the region have been cancelled. Ballykilty Manor in Quin has put its expansion project on hold and this comes on top of the decisions by Dromoland and Doonbeg.

The reality is that Aer Lingus is the only airline in respect of the Heathrow slots. There is no alternative. If the decision by Aer Lingus is not reversed, it will have huge consequences for Shannon and the entire western region. Day by day confidence is being diluted in our region and yet no action is being taken in defence of Shannon. There are commitments to future investment in Transport 21 and there was a commitment in the tourism and economic development plan, but nothing has happened. Not one cent has been spent on this promised tourism and economic development plan.

Having conceded that it can intervene in Aer Lingus, I call on the Government to use its 25% shareholding in the company to have the Aer Lingus Shannon-Heathrow service restored. Time is running out in terms of airline scheduling for 13 January 2008, but it is also running out for the Minister for Transport and the Marine and the Government on this issue. It is a critical issue in the region and it will not go away.

Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

I am responding on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey. Under the memorandum and articles of association, the State is entitled to appoint three directors to the board of Aer Lingus. Currently, there is only one State appointed director serving on the board and it is now proposed that two further appointments be made. The State's representatives will not, as has been reported, have a mandate to block any future slot transfers. Under company law, all directors have legal responsibilities to protect the interests of the company which, in practice, means advancing the interests of all shareholders.

Immediately after the IPO, Ryanair's attempted takeover bid was launched. Under the applicable law, the State representative on the board was excluded from board meetings at which the takeover was discussed. It would not have made any sense in such circumstances to have appointed all three State directors at that time.

The circumstances are now different and it is appropriate to make those appointments in the near future. The State appointees will seek to ensure that all future decisions of the company that have implications for wider Government, aviation or regional development policies are considered and decided at board level. This will give the State appointees the opportunity to raise the public policy implications of each decision and to ensure that the full commercial implications for the company are taken into account. The State appointees to the board do not have a veto on board decisions. It is not possible for the State, even as a shareholder, to seek to impose non-commercial obligations on the company.

Aer Lingus has stated that it made its decision to transfer the Shannon-Heathrow slots for commercial reasons and the company has confirmed that this decision is commercially robust. Under company law it is not possible for the State or any other shareholder to overturn a decision taken by the company on day to day business matters. The legal advice to the Government has been clear and unequivocal on this point. The Minister has made it clear to the company that this decision goes against national aviation and regional policy, but it has made it clear that it will not change that decision. By appointing our full board complement it will be possible to ensure that the full ramifications of all significant strategic decisions are fully discussed and decided by the board.

In regard to connectivity, the report of the senior officials group, which has now been published, examined all the implications of the Aer Lingus decision. It concluded that while the withdrawal of the Heathrow service is a loss to the Shannon region, the negative impact from a connectivity point of view almost completely relates to one stop connectivity and flight duration to key destinations in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, as such destinations must generally be accessed through a major hub. This has obvious adverse effects in terms of business travellers and other users from the Shannon region.

However, the senior officials group confirms there should be little impact on connectivity with destinations in the Americas as the best route is as likely to be through one of the US hubs served directly from Shannon. Services between Ireland and US are enhanced when one takes into account the link up by Aer Lingus with the US carrier, Jet Blue, which makes possible access to and from Shannon to 50 airports in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.

This is in addition to the new direct services being provided under the open skies arrangements. In the case of European origins or destinations, the analysis found that there is no loss of one-stop connectivity but travel via Heathrow was found in general to be faster.

The Minister commends the Shannon Airport Authority for its positive response to the current difficulties. The authority has specifically identified airline services to the key European hub airports of London-Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt as being of key strategic importance to its ongoing development. The airport recently published a European hub airport incentive scheme for services to come into operation in 2008 which provides for significant discounts in airport charges and for the possibility of marketing support to be provided by Shannon Airport for new services.

The Minister is very committed to ensuring that the mid-west region will continue to have the widest possible range of connectivity options available for the benefit of business and tourism throughout the region.

Arising from the Government's acceptance of the report, it is proposed that, taking account of the findings and the other issues addressed therein, the relevant Ministers, following consultation with the four mid-west planning authorities, together with the Mid-West Regional Authority, will report back to Government as soon as possible on strategies for unlocking the further development potential of the Limerick-Shannon gateway and its wider region. This will be done in light of the substantial investment planned under the national development plan and Transport 21 to create an integrated infrastructure underpinning the region's competitive position.

Deputy Pat Breen

There is only one strategy and that is to use the 25%.

Schools Building Projects.

Deputy Willie Penrose

I thank the Minister for attending. I thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this important issue concerning the provision of funding to enable the provision of vital additional accommodation at my old alma mater, Saint Brigid’s national school, Ballynacargy, County Westmeath, the roll number of which is 01731U.

An application was made to the Minister's Department for funding under the devolved capital works scheme in respect of the small schools scheme 2007. The scheme allows a maximum grant of €484,000 to carry out works that would cost approximately €600,000. Unbelievably and somewhat bizarrely, and to the amazement of everyone, including the board of management, parents, principal and staff, the funding application was rejected due to financial constraints. As I understood it, schools with absolute and demonstrated needs were approved.

In the era of the Celtic tiger, in which the fruits of our economic success should be allocated to provide decent, adequate, warm and modern accommodation to give our children a good start in academic life, the Department found it was not essential to meet the needs of in excess of 90 children in Ballynacargy national school. The board of management and teachers spent many hours planning, deliberating and consulting with regard to their initial application and subsequent appeal. For the past few years, the teachers have diligently attended in-service days devoted to the implementation of the revised curriculum and returned to the school to try to implement the new approach, yet they find their attempts to implement it are handicapped severely due to inadequate space and resources.

The 92 children in the school are currently accommodated in four classrooms of 30 sq. m while the recommended size of such rooms is from 48 sq. m to 60 sq. m. The school, which is classified as disadvantaged, but with no concessionary post, has a full-time resource teacher accommodated in a converted cloakroom leading to the boys' toilets. The learning support teacher, whose post — rated as 0.9 — is almost full-time, is accommodated in a room that the school built from its own resources approximately ten years ago. The room is also used as a computer room, office, storage room, secretary's room and staff room. A rural co-ordinator was recently sanctioned for the school under the DEIS programme and a special needs assistant must be accommodated. Where are all these members of staff to be accommodated?

The school has one sink and there is no room to install more. There are no sinks in the classrooms and no running water, hot or cold. One computer is squeezed into a corner, allowing limited access for teachers and pupils, and the limited space severely restricts reading, art, computer work, dancing, circle time and the display of the children's work. Physical education is completely dependent on weather conditions. The staff room has no kitchen facilities, no hot or cold water and no food preparation or disposal area, yet it caters for a minimum of eight people.

This year the school participated in the school meals programme, organised by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Participation is curtailed somewhat due to the lack of the most basic resources. The school wishes to operate a breakfast club in addition to participating in this scheme.

The school serves an area with a high incidence of educational disadvantage, which is furthered by the lack of adequate and basic facilities, which are clearly required. The provision of a general purpose room is essential to the school and it would serve as a dining room for use under the school meals programme. Children could eat their lunches, produce shows, sing, talk, hold exhibitions and do art there while staff could use it for supervision. Since the classrooms are small and overcrowded, ventilation problems arise, especially if the children are contained there all day. Such containment leads to stress among the pupils and teachers and gives rise to health and safety concerns for everybody. Small communal toilets for large numbers of children leave a lot to be desired. It is clear there is an urgent need to upgrade and disperse them so the requirements of everyone do not need to be catered for in just one location.

The school authorities were given to understand that the necessary capital funding would be provided some months ago. The Minister can therefore imagine their disappointment and dismay not only over the refusal of their initial application, but also over the binning of their appeal. I believed they might have been mistaken in their understanding of the matter until I read the reply to a parliamentary question I tabled on 2 October 2007. It stated:

On 5 March 2007, I announced details of the schools to receive funding under the Small Schools Scheme 2007. The application from the school to which the Deputy refers was successful and officials from School Building Section have been in contact the school authority advising them of the next steps in the process.

The Minister made reference to Saint Bríde's national school but there is no such school in Ballynacargy, nor is there in Emper or the next village.

Will the Minister reinclude Ballynacargy national school if its application has been rejected and ensure it receives the money necessary to put in place two new classrooms, the general purpose room, a staff room, two resource rooms and an office? This would allow the conversion of the existing four classrooms into two rooms. I rarely raise any such matter in the House but this is very important. I refer to my own area, which is expanding and designated by the Department as disadvantaged. Will the Minister please find the €484,000 that the board of management, principal and staff and parents were originally led to believe they would receive? Later they were led to believe the contrary and then, on the basis of the reply to my parliamentary question, they were lead to believe they had the funding again. I am afraid the Minister will disappoint me again. A legitimate expectation has been raised on foot of her reply and it is up to her to correct the misinterpretation, if there is one. On behalf of the people associated with the school, I ask that a wrong be put right.

Deputy Mary Hanafin

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. His main interest concerns the school to which he referred. I understand there are two schools listed for Ballynacargy, each with its own roll number. One is Scoil Bhríde and the other is Ballynacargy mixed national school. My reply to the parliamentary question last week related to Scoil Bhríde and my reply tonight concerns the mixed national school. If there is any confusion over this, I will be happy to clarify it for the Deputy.

The Deputy will be aware of the extent of the modernisation of schools nationwide, particularly given the under-investment in this area over many years. Obviously, many old schools are being modernised and we have been keeping pace with the rapid population growth. This year alone the Government has spent €550 million on the schools building programme. Under the lifetime of the national development plan, some €4.5 billion will be invested. This is an unprecedented level of investment and shows our commitment to continued investment in primary and post-primary schools.

Some €300 million will be invested in large-scale building projects, mainly in rapidly developing areas. This will facilitate 150 large-scale projects and deliver 15,000 additional permanent places in new schools and extensions and modernised facilities in existing schools, benefiting over 45,000 pupils. It will also enable the purchase of sites to facilitate the smooth delivery of the schools building programme, again focusing on site requirements in rapidly developing areas. The balance will be used to fund the other schemes referred to by the Deputy, namely, the summer works scheme, the small schools scheme, the permanent accommodation scheme, etc. This year alone, some 1,500 schools building projects will be delivered.

As Deputy Penrose rightly stated, Ballynacargy mixed national school has a principal, three mainstream teachers, one learning support-resource teacher and one resource teacher. There are small classes and a pupil teacher ratio of approximately 1:19. Enrolment has been very stable over the past five years. I accept that in some cases additional teachers were employed before accommodation was made available. It was more important to put staff in place than wait for the classrooms, particularly in respect of resource teaching and supports for children.

The mixed national school's application was not successful on this occasion. I will clarify the position in respect of the other roll number referred to by the Deputy. It is open to the school to apply again for funding and the circumstances outlined by the Deputy will be taken into consideration in light of the multi-annual schools building and modernisation programme.

Site Acquisitions.

Deputy Tom Hayes

I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise this important issue with the Minister for Education and Science. I thank the Minister for coming to the House tonight. I have raised many matters on the Adjournment since I was first elected to the House, but this is the first time the Minister responsible has come here to respond to me. I appreciate the Minister's presence to listen to what I have to say about the gaelscoil in Clonmel. I know she has a great deal of knowledge of this saga, which I would prefer not to have to raise in this Chamber. I have asked many questions about it in the past, but on this occasion I will not be satisfied with answers which will not be carried through to fruition.

I would like to outline briefly the history of this affair. When South Tipperary County Council announced in 1997 that it was planning to stop using some office accommodation in the Irishtown district of Clonmel, it was suggested that the local gaelscoil, which had nowhere to go, be allowed to use the building. At the time, a divided council decided, against the wishes of the council management and engineers, to give the school permission to use it. As the building was not fit to be used as office accommodation, the county manager had recommended that it be levelled and the site used as a machinery yard. The members of the council did not take that recommendation on board, however — they agreed to the request of the parents and board of management in the school that the building be used to accommodate the gaelscoil.

The school authorities have been looking for permanent accommodation since 1997. When by-elections were held in the Tipperary South constituency in 2000 and 2001, public meetings were held in the local hotel and promises were made that a site would be acquired. The then Minister for Education and Science announced before the 2002 general election that a site would be made available to the gaelscoil — proof of this promise exists in the form of photographs which were taken with local representatives on the occasion of the announcement. When a further public meeting was held in 2007, Fianna Fáil councillors decided that they would table motions at local authority level favouring a site at the Ballingarrane estate, which is the property of the local council. They knew that the site would not be made available by the council, however. The management of this hugely successful school, which is supported by everybody in the local community, has been dealt with in a disgraceful and unfair manner. The parents, board of management and students are frustrated because they have been waiting for a long time for a new site, which is needed because the conditions in the current accommodation are extremely bad. They were hoodwinked in the past when various possible sites were mentioned.

I appeal to the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, to take this issue in hand by deciding where the school should be built. There are two possible sites, the Ballingarrane site I mentioned and a site on health board land, both of which are owned by the State. The latter site is owned by the Minister for Health and Children, under the auspices of the Health Service Executive. I ask the Minister to bang together the heads of the officials in the various Departments so that one of these two sites can be selected and a new school can be built. I understand that the necessary funds have been allocated and progress could be made if a site was made available in the morning. The manner in which this saga has been allowed to continue is unfair to those involved in the gaelscoil and the community as a whole. It is particularly unfair that the staff and students of the school should have to work in unsuitable conditions. I appreciate that the Minister has met various delegations about this matter, but she needs to bang some heads together so that a site can be identified and the new school can be built.

Deputy Mary Hanafin

I thank Deputy Tom Hayes for giving me an opportunity to outline the current position maidir le Gaelscoil Chluain Meala. Tuigim go maith an gá atá ann le haghaidh scoil nua. I genuinely appreciate that the school has had to wait a long time for new accommodation. The Government will do all it can to acquire a site for the gaelscoil as soon as possible. The aggressive protest that took place during the election campaign earlier this year, which was mentioned by Deputy Hayes, will not affect my determination to do something about the need for a new school. Children were used in an inappropriate manner during the protest, which took place in Clonmel. While I recognise that there is a need for a new school, I do not believe any school should operate in the manner observed that day.

As the Deputy is aware, the property management section of the Office of Public Works, which generally purchases sites for new schools on behalf of the Department of Education and Science, was asked to identify potential sites for the gaelscoil. A number of responses were received after the OPW placed an advertisement seeking proposals for possible sites. Six sites were visited and their technical suitability as locations for the gaelscoil was considered. The preferred location for the new school development emerged as a three-acre site on the existing Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute campus, which is owned by Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute Limited. The institute proposed to the Department that its campus in Clonmel be relocated to a large-scale technology park. The relocation proposal was approved on certain conditions, one of which was that the institute should assist the Department in finding a site for the gaelscoil. As I said earlier this year, while this process is reasonably well advanced, it is taking longer than expected.

Given the urgency of the school's needs, the Department has started to seek alternative site options. The Department is committed to acquiring a site for the school as quickly as possible, regardless of whether the site is part of the Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute campus or at a location elsewhere in Clonmel. All sites are being considered as part of the efforts which are being made to bring this process to a conclusion. I thank Deputy Hayes and reassure him go bhfuilimid ag déanamh ár gcuid ar son Gaelscoil Chluain Meala chun suíomh ceart a fháil.

The Dáil adjourned at 8.55 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 10 October 2007.