I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this very urgent matter.
The graphic pictures and descriptions of the appalling conditions at Baltydaniel national school in Cork that appeared in yesterday's issue of The Irish Times will, I am sure, have shocked the readers of that paper, but they are all to well known to the public representatives of the area and to local parents, who have been trying for more than ten years to force the Department of Education to do something about the school. In my years as a councillor and a TD I have rarely seen worse conditions in any school. No child should be forced to attend classes in the kind of conditions at Baltydaniel national school and no teacher should be asked to teach classes in such dilapidated. dangerous and unhygienic surroundings.
Baltydaniel national school is a disgrace to our society, to successive Governments and, especially to the Department of Education. The 115 pupils who attend that school are the victims of official indifference and neglect. One might expect to find such conditions in an underdeveloped Third World country but they should have no place in a country that likes to think of itself as being a modern, progressive member of the European Community.
Baltydaniel national school was built in 1884 and the conditions there have improved little since. An extra room was added in 1928. Its structure is dilapidated and the windows and doors are falling to pieces. The toilets are sited some 50 yards away from the school building and do not have even wash basins or taps. The local medical officer has warned that the toilets are a potential source of salmonella and hepatitis. The teachers have no separate toilets and have to share the same dreadful facilities as the children. In the past the school has also been condemned by fire authorities for, among other reasons, the dangerous timber-lined walls, the lack of fire alarms and inadequate means of escape.
Over the years parents have done what they could to improve conditions at the school. They have clubbed together to provide portable heaters and, later, a central heating system. The more they did, however, the less the Department seemed to do.
The saga of a replacement for Baltydaniel national school has been going on for more than ten years. In 1982 the Department gave their approval for an extension and renovation. Planning permission was granted but nothing happened. In 1986 there was a further announcement of an extension and renovation but again nothing happened. In 1988 parents had their hopes raised when approval was given for a completely new school, planning permission was secured, but — as was the case so often before — that is as far as it went.
We all know of the budgetary difficulties and the pressures on Government finances but, as the new General Secretary of INTO, Senator Joe O'Toole, recently asked, how is it that we can find millions to pay land speculators for Carysfort but cannot make money available for the school building programme?
The parents and pupils of Baltydaniel national school have been waiting too long and are now entitled to fair play. It is not the only school in the country in need of replacement but it is one of the most urgent cases. Given the conditions and the length of time that the people of Baltydaniel have been waiting, Baltydaniel national school surely deserves some kind of priority. The project must now be put to tender without further delay and a definite date must be fixed for the commencement of building. The main thing I ask of the Minister tonight is to sanction the invitation of tenders.
