I ask the Minister of State to ensure that the Department of Education and Science immediately prioritises and expedites the tendering and completion of the extension and refurbishment of Granlahan national school. I was approached recently by chairman of the board of management of the school, Reverend Father Joseph Feaney, the principal, Mr. William Phillips, his assistant, Angela Keaveney, and other members of the board who include Mr. Joe Kane, Ms Mary Costello, Pauline Neary, Mary Gormley and Gerry Glennon. They sent me a statement which highlights the deplorable conditions prevailing at the school.
Granlahan national school is a two teacher school, which had an enrolment of 40 pupils in the current school year. The school was built in 1963. It was originally a girls' school and in the early 1970s it amalgamated with the boys' school. The toilets were divided in two using a wooden partition and this is still the case today. Due to the overcrowding and the lack of separate male and female toilet facilities, the condition of the entire toilet block has deteriorated over the years to the extent that it has become unsafe and odorous. It is proving impossible to maintain acceptable standards of health and safety.
In 1994 a shared remedial teacher was appointed to a cluster of schools in the area and that teacher works in the school three afternoons each fortnight. The school has only two classrooms. For the past five years that teacher and her pupils have had to use the school's cloakroom as a classroom. Children with learning difficulties who attend the remedial class deserve better than this and subjecting that group of children and their teacher to the indignity of working in a dim and dreary cloakroom is wrong and unjust. On the occasions when the music teacher attends the school and that visit coincides with the visit of the remedial teacher, the pupils who are learning music must be taught in the corridor. Surely that is not an acceptable practice.
In June 1998 the board of management applied to the Department of Education and Science to carry out a small extension to the school and a total refurbishment of the whole building. The work was approved and sanctioned by the building and planning unit of the Department of Education and Science in Tullamore. The local contribution was fixed at 10% and planning permission and a fire certificate were applied for and granted. The board of management had taken a decision to carry out this work to the school during the last summer holidays, July and August l999. The board is extremely unhappy that delays and a lack of urgency in the Department's planning and building unit resulted in this necessary development being held up and the work not proceeding.
The situation regarding the toilet facility and the accommodation for the shared remedial teacher and the music teacher is urgent. It is a matter of priority that the work should commence immediately. I am not aware of any other school where boys and girls share the same toilet block or where a teacher and her class use a cluttered and dark cloakroom as a classroom.
I request the Minister of State to deal with this as a matter of urgency. I have been asked to use my influence to make whatever representations I consider necessary to get the work done on behalf of the parents, the pupils and the teachers of Granlahan national school. I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House to reply to the matter. I hope his response will give some comfort to the people concerned having regard to their circumstances.
