In relation to national monuments, greater emphasis should be placed on their protection and preservation by the Board of Works. They reflect our appreciation and regard for our background, culture and heritage. Other nations with lesser wealth are now seeking to restore their national monuments. We should ensure that our national monuments are restored and protected. They have a very important cultural role to play. I should like to recap for a few moments in relation to the provision of jetties and berthing places on the river Shannon. I believe that the Office of Public Works should have greater consultation with the boating interests on the Shannon. I refer particularly to the Irish Boat Rental Association. I am reliably informed that while those people are grateful to the Minister and his Department for the fine services which exist on the Shannon at the moment they would like the Department, if possible to provide a greater number of less expensive jetties. Tourists enjoy the solitude on the Shannon. It is important that they are not deprived of navigating the Shannon by having to berth in places which are already overcrowded. It would be a great advantage to the tourists who wish to enjoy the amenities of the Shannon if there were more jetty facilities and they were located in less conspicuous places.
In recent years the purchase of lands alongside the Shannon by private individuals for speculative purposes in some cases is depriving the public at large of a very important right of access to some places adjacent to the Shannon. This could be the Irish public or tourists from abroad. The Minister's Department should play their part in the development of any access lands to the Shannon in ensuring that if they are acquired by the local authorities, the Land Commission or private individuals, proper amenities are provided in those areas. We do not want to see the river Shannon becoming the place for a particular category of people who can afford to purchase land to the exclusion of all other tourists, whether Irish or those from abroad who are so welcome. I hope the Minister can see his way to extending the amenities in the areas adjacent to the Shannon to ensure access from our main roads to the Shannon.
I am delighted to note that there is a particular emphasis in the Minister's speech on the improvement and development of our school buildings. We are less fortunate in the west than people in other parts of the country in relation to the erection of schools. We are required to pay a fraction of the cost to the Board of Works. It is easier for people in the better developed areas of the country to make this type of contribution than it is for people in Roscommon, Leitrim and many places in the west generally. We have the same right to education, and our children have the same right to proper facilities. It is important that in the formative years of their educational and physical development proper buildings and proper facilities be provided for them.
Most Irish homes in the latter years of this century have been brought up to date. The standard of living has vastly improved and is continuing to be improved by the provision of water and sewerage facilities. Have our educational structures, particularly where primary education is provided, been kept in line with the improvements in other areas? It is a contradiction to have a child living in a home with at least the minimum standards of cleanliness and hygiene having to go to a school which may be badly furnished, be damp and may have only very poor toilet facilities. This is an intolerable situation. People with the wonderful ability of teachers who can contribute so much to the well-being of our young people deserve better treatment. One could describe the teaching profession as unusual because they have never been as vocal as other professional people would be if they had to work in the conditions which exist in some of our schools. I believe they do not complain as much as other people would because of their concern for the children whose education they are responsible for.
The Minister and his Department should ensure that there are at least minimum standards in all our school buildings so that our teachers will be able to provide for the education of our children. We should not have different sets of standards between home and school. We cannot have a proper hygiene campaign or a proper health campaign or proper concern for our physical development unless we have educational establishments where this care and respect for ourselves is catered for. We would like our primary school teachers to be able to continue teaching our children how to be clean, how to have a sense of values and an appreciation for physical development and hygiene generally.
If schools have standards that are less than the standards maintained in homes there will be a conflict in any efforts being made by any other Department in this regard. We cannot have double standards where children at very formative years are concerned. The Minister is initiating a great incentive in the minds of Dáil Deputies and ultimately the public, by the manner in which he presented his address today. I see in it an extension of the Government's intention and commitment to provide the incentive, the growth and the opportunity that will ultimately create wealth and that wealth will create a better standard of living for all. I am satisfied and confident that the Minister and his very capable officials will pursue at all levels in the Department anything that is in the best interests of the people in relation to improved standards of living, education and so on.
Notice taken that 20 Members were not present; House counted and 20 Members being present,
