The Cathaoirleach received notice from Senator Cooney that he proposed to raise the following matter on the Adjournment: the award of a contract for a new vocational school at Ballinahown. Senator Cooney.
Adjournment Matter. - Ballinahown (Westmeath) School.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
I am obliged to the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. In effect, I have taken the opportunity of this Adjournment Debate to make a special plea to the Minister for immediate sanction to a tender for the erection of a new school in the village of Ballinahown on the borders of Westmeath and Offaly. I want to take this opportunity to give the Minister some reasons as to why he might give this matter his urgent attention. It is common case between all sides that there are many national schools in the country that are in poor physical shape. But I would venture to bet a fair sum of money that the village school in Ballinahown is the worst of the lot. It was built in 1863—117 years ago. It was renovated in 1930. The year 1930, in terms of 1863, sounds quite modern but we have to remember that 1930 was half a century ago. The school consists of a two-storey building with two classrooms and two store rooms off them. The building, as to its age, is totally unsuitable, it is dark, it is overcrowded. Especially, it has not proper sanitary or extra-curricular facilities for the children. The playground outside the school is on the small side. A portion of it is clay and a portion of it is concrete. The concrete is badly cracked, it is uneven and in wet weather it is subject to flooding. The clay, as one can imagine with a school of 78 pupils, in wet weather becomes a morass of mud, and parents are constantly complaining of children coming home from school with their clothing in a filty condition because children will play irrespective of the underfoot conditions and, in the nature of things, they will slip on the mud, and if they are not playing on the mud they will trip on the concrete. On the boundary of the mud and the concrete there is what passes for sanitary facilities.
I visited that school about a fortnight ago and was taken in to inspect it. When I was 15 yards away from the lavatory the stench of urine was positively overpowering. In wet weather the approach to the lavatory is under water and, if younger children want to visit the lavatory, older children have to carry them piggyback to the lavatory. That is in relation to those of them who will visit the lavatory. I want to be frank about this: the conditions in the lavatory are so bad that many of the children refuse and fail to use it and parents have complained to me that children have come home to them with their clothing soiled because they were unable to use the lavatory. That is the condition of this school in 1980.
These are the reasons why I am begging the Minister to give sanction immediately to the tender which he has received for the building of this school. The parents down there are coming to the end of their tether and the teachers equally so because one can imagine the frustration of trying to discharge a professional obligation in those appalling surroundings. Pressure is on the teachers and on the parents. There is pressure on the teachers to withdraw their services and pressure on the parents to withdraw their pupils and to go on strike, the modern remedy for every grievance. I must say, in credit to both teachers and parents, they have both refused to do so, being conscious of the bad example that such action would be to the children in their care. They have shown a responsibility and a discipline here. I would ask the Minister to recognise their sense of responsibility and their sense of discipline by taking them out of their predicament.
There is one further point I want to make about this to emphasise what I am saying. This school is in the nearest village to the monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise. It is indeed ironic that just down the road from this village we have these majestic remains in which we take tremendous pride, remains from centuries and centuries ago. Then up the road where we are educating the next generation, we are educating them in a most appalling slum. I know the Minister is a humane man, a man of rural background. He knows the importance of a good rural school in an area. I would appeal to him, on the facts that I have outlined, to give sanction for the tender which he has in his Department.
Tá áthas orm an bealach seo bheith agam labhairt faoin scoil seo.
I have had representations from all the Deputies in the area about it already and from Dr. Daly, the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. I know the circumstances of the school and the Senator very rightly points out that the need for a new school in the centre is an urgent one. I am in total agreement with him that the conditions of the school are very bad indeed. I am not in dispute with him at all.
As far as the Department are concerned there was no unwarranted delay in dealing with the question of this central school. Its replacement was considered first in 1965 and the context was the establishment at Ballinahown of a central school which would also serve Bloomhill and Roshina. The policy of the amalgamation of smaller schools where the distances involved for the children were not unduly great and where local consent could be obtained for such procedure, has been pursued by successive Governments. The rationale behind this policy was essentially educational in that it provided better and more structured teaching circumstances for the children.
If in the event it also secured a better distribution of teaching services throughout the school system this was seen as part of the question of equity in treatment. There was no evidence then, nor is there now, that such a policy was embarked upon to bring about any kind of economy in educational expenditure. The decisions that were taken were taken purely on educational grounds.
Agreement regarding the amalgamation of Ballinahown and Bloomhill which would permit the planning of a central school to proceed was not achieved until July 1976. In fact, when it was first mooted it was rejected. The main reason for the delay was the necessity to consult with the school authorities and parents. It is my policy not to inflict an amalgamation where there is not a reasonable degree of consensus in the community. Following the decision to amalgamate the schools in question the accommodation requirements were assessed, a site was offered, found suitable and accepted and planning work proceeded through sketch plan and working drawing stages and the preparation of a bill of quantities—these are the normal gradations—to appoint where tenders were invited and received at the end of 1979. Such delay as had been experienced in the acceptance of a tender and placement of a contract has been due entirely to the fact that the tenders received were considerably in excess of the cost limits for a school building of this kind. In these circumstances there rested an obligation on my Department, in conjunction with the Office of Public Works, to examine the lowest tender and explore the ways and means of bringing this within the cost limits. This work is proceeding.
I want to state that the priority attached to the provision of this school has not in any way lessened. I fully accept Senator Cooney's thesis with regard to the school. It would not be at its present level of development as a project had it not been given a very high priority. I am fully conscious of the need to proceed with building as soon as possible. It must be appreciated, however—and I would like to stress this—that in the interests of proper management of public moneys and the interests also of all other school projects which have to be given consideration I could not authorise proceeding with building at any price. The Senator and the House will appreciate this. To do so would lessen the share of capital available for other projects and the concern to provide the maximum number of new school places consistent with reasonable education and building standards which must be a consideration of fundamental importance to Seanad Éireann and Dáil Éireann and the Oireachtas generally.
Last week on the occasion of a debate on the Adjournment in Dáil Éireann discussion took place in relation to the case of another school where the same difficulty has arisen because the tender price was in excess of the cost limits of the Office of the Public Works. The advice offered was that the Minister should forget about cost limits and accept any tender that a contractor, in his wisdom and experience, should decide is appropriate to the project. This, of course, I cannot do. I would be failing in my duty if I did not see to it that the State gets the best possible value from such building projects. It would be a lot easier for me, as Minister for Education, if I just simply said, "Build a Taj Mahal here, or a Taj Mahal there".
It would be a simple national school.
The simple national school has cost limits, tried and trusted and tested in my Department. It is my duty, as the responsible person in this area of Government, to see to it that we get value for money. That is the reality.
The Minister has been examining this tender for a long time.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
The Minister must be allowed to continue without interruption.
There is not an unlimited supply of finance available and if a Minister is to get the optimum return from financial expenditure on school building at all levels by way of maximising the number of school places to be provided annually, he is obliged to have regard to the various regulations and procedures including insistence on reasonable cost control. It is in the general interest of school authorities who desire to place contracts in the current year that strict control should be exercised over the cost to be approved in the case of each individual school.
Finally, I would stress again, that the only delay involved in the provision of the Ballinahown central school at this stage is occasioned by the efforts to bring the lowest tender within the cost limits appropriate to a school of this size. That this work is proceeding as quickly as possible and that the date of signing a contract to enable building to commence is dependent on its successful completion. I am hopeful that it will be possible to authorise the placing of a contract in the near future.
Would the Minister define "the near future" because it has been under examination since November 1979?
It is under examination to bring it within the cost limits.
Since November 1979.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
There cannot be any further discussion in this type of debate.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 18 June 1980.