I welcome the Minister to the House. First, I offer my congratulations to St. Louis Secondary School in Carrickmacross on their victory in the All-Ireland senior B basketball championship today. The Minister of State at the Department of Education, Mr. Aylward, may be aware it is an old and established centre of learning. Indeed, it might be appropriate for the Minister and the Cathaoirleach to send a note of congratulation to them.
I am concerned about the condition of two of the three schools in the parish of Errigal Truagh, in north Monaghan. I will outline the problems which they face and ask the Minister for assistance in that regard. The parish of Errigal Truagh is situated in an exceptional part of Ireland in beautiful rolling landscape under the shadow of what is locally known as the Bragan mountain. Other people may not consider it to be a mountain, but it is our mountain and we love it. Everyone knows about the hills of Monaghan, which are like the tops of eggs. This part of Monaghan is drained by the Black-water and its tributaries and some of the soil in this area is fertile.
I hope the Minister and the Minister of State will visit it. There is an enterprise of some sort around every bend. There are mushroom units, poultry houses, shoe and furniture factories. This is the kind of place it is. The people are hard working, honest and very ambitious. No other part of Ireland has this kind of profile. The community, being the type it is, built a fine community centre attached to the football field. In Carrickroe, which is a village in one part of that parish, a meeting will take place tomorrow night to discuss the condition of their own local hall with a view to upgrading the facilities there. People who are serious about creating employment — and many people are — would do well to carry out an indepth study of the people in this part of County Monaghan and their practices and activities.
The parish of Errigal Truagh has been largely untouched by grants and subventions. It is now looking for attention regarding the condition of two of its three schools. Knockconan is the oldest of the three and was built in 1902. The Minister would be able to surmise from this date, even if he had not seen the school, that it is entirely unsuited to the demands of the new curriculum. In today's terms it is primitive in the extreme. I visited it the other day. I know it well but wanted to familiarise myself with it again. I found it has two classrooms and a prefab. All three rooms are overcrowded. There is very little space for the pupils. Teacher pupil contact is difficult. One to one contact is almost impossible. The school does not have a remedial teacher and this exacerbates its problems. The windows in the old part of the school are very high and little natural light comes in. Although the pupils are very happy there, the atmosphere is not conducive to the work schools must do today.
A report on the school shows the classrooms are too small. The infants room is exceptionally small and totally inadequate for the number of pupils in it. The toilet block is inadequate. There are no storage, staff, medical or cloak rooms. There is no library space or office. When I visited the other day, the secretary's desk was situated at the end of the corridor beside the door to the toilets. This is entirely unsatisfactory. There are no sinks or running water in the classrooms. The tiles in the corridor are very slippery, which is dangerous. The yard is very small. The boundary wall is broken and dangerous. There is a makeshift perspex shelter in the yard which the parents put there to offer shelter to the pupils.
The board of management is doing its best to keep the building in good condition and the atmosphere is excellent. There are books everywhere, but in an unco-ordinated way, because there is no place for them. There is a computer in the corner. All the mod cons which the board of management can supply are there. However, a bucket of water is needed for art, the classroom has to be rearranged and all the furniture moved. It takes a half an hour for the art class to get underway. One can see how inadequate this is. It is a lamentable situation. I believe the Minister will agree it should be remedied at once.
Clara national school was built in 1972 and is not the subject of any serious complaints. Deravoy school was built in the 1960s and is relatively modern. However, there are difficulties in that the design is inadequate and inferior. The school needs redesigning and refurbishing. The third classroom is a 33-year-old prefab. It has been in the school for about 14 years. When it arrived it was in tatters and is now in a terrible mess. I do not know how the glass stays on the windows. The roof is hanging by a thread, which is not unexpected when a temporary building has been used for the past 33 years. There are rotten windows and all sorts of problems in that classroom. It needs to be replaced by a permanent structure. There is no staffroom, office or storage space in Deravoy.
The Minister will appreciate that people are entitled to a little dignity and the staff and pupils should not have to work in those conditions. I can verify that the boards of management have kept the schools in good condition. They have spent whatever was necessary to do this. The pupils are very happy and contented, which is incredible given the situation I found in the schools, particularly in Knockconan. I pay a special tribute to the principals and staff in each of the schools. These are Mrs. Devlin, Mrs. Joanne Deery and Mrs. Eimer Brennan in Knockconan and Mr. John Mullen, Mrs McCormack and Hilda McManus in Deravoy. I assume the Minister, having received a report from his officials, will agree the situation is bad. I want him to offer support to the people of that parish, who deserve it.
The parish is near the Border. The Border roads are closed and freedom of movement is difficult. All the consequences of being a Border community militate against this parish. Its people can see fine, well equipped schools across the Border. This gives them a feeling of unease.
I want the Minister to send some of his staff to meet the boards of management, look at the schools and discuss the situation with them at the earliest opportunity. They want this to happen within a few weeks. If the Minister agrees to this, I can speak to him later and we can arrange it. I look forward to the Minister's co-operation.
