The Department of Education sanctioned a new vocational school for Carrick-on-Shannon in 1967 but did not allow building to commence. The Department adopted a policy in 1970 in favour of providing a community school in the town. This was not acceptable to the Marist Sisters, to the Presentation Brothers or to County Leitrim vocational education committee the three parties involved in post-primary education in the town.
In 1973 the Presentation Brothers and the Marist Sisters merged their schools and established Marymount College which has a current enrolment of more than 330 pupils.
For the past 25 years, since the new vocational school was sanctioned but cancelled, staff and students at Carrick-on-Shannon vocational school have been forced to work under appalling, grossly inadequate and unhealthy conditions.
The original school, built in 1935, had five classrooms and was situated on a quarter acre site. Enrolment during the past 12 years has grown from 161 to about 330. At present Carrick-on-Shannon vocational school is scattered over 13 separate buildings on six independent sites, most of them rented. If the headmaster wished to visit all of the classrooms he would have to go outdoors 13 times and walk approximately two miles. Pupils are continually on the move and may be forced to change classrooms four or five times a day. In bad weather, therefore, each student will get wet several times a day. There is no shelter apart from classrooms. The prefabricated classrooms are now almost 25 years old. They are falling to pieces. Despite continuing maintenance and expenditure they are now completely unsuitable.
The TUI recently submitted a list of demands for improvements and have given strike notice to Leitrim vocational education committee. They are seeking a shelter for students, proper toilet facilities and a staffroom.
I visited the school recently and found the conditions there deplorable. This House enacted the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act in 1989. I consider it scandalous that resources have not been made available to schools such as that at Carrick-on-Shannon in order to enable them to comply with the minimum requirements of that legislation.
I know that the Programme for Economic and Social Progress was to make provision of £4 million in 1992 to upgrade unsatisfactory school buildings. I ask the Minister to urgently consider the making of an allocation from that source as a stop-gap measure to alleviate the more serious problems and avert the threatened TUI strike. I know that a large number of primary and post primary schools would wish to draw from the same well, but there is no doubt in my mind that Carrick-on-Shannon vocational school has an exceptional case.
It is clear from consideration of the public capital programme that the level of expenditure proposed for post-primary building is completely inadequate. During the past three years expenditure on school buildings at second level has fallen from £27 million per year to £11 million per year. In view of the number of areas where rationalisation has been agreed and having regard to the substandard nature of the buildings in hundreds of post-primary schools, I consider the proposed level of expenditure on school buildings in 1992 to be grossly inadequate.
For more than 20 years the Department of Education have been in favour of providing a new community school in Carrick-on-Shannon. The Marist Sisters who operated Marymount college have been in agreement with this policy since 1975 but county Leitrim vocational education committee did not agree to that development until 1989. The former Minister for Education, Deputy Mary O'Rourke, met a delegation from County Leitrim vocational education committee on 4 May 1989 during which she indicated a three year time scale for a new community school in Carrick-on-Shannon if the vocational education committee would accept the proposal. The committee members who were present at that meeting brought back to Carrick-on-Shannon the message that a new community school would be built within three years. County Leitrim vocational education committee own a valuable site in Carrick-on-Shannon which was bought to accommodate the vocational school project approved 25 years ago. The vocational education committee agreed to transfer that site free of charge to the Minister on the understanding that the building of the new community school would commence within the three year time scale indicated by Minister O'Rourke.
Sadly, despite the urgency of the situation in Carrick-on-Shannon, progress to date has been disappointing and a number of major stages, such as the bill of quantities, working drawings, preparation of tender documents and so on, have still to be completed. It would be not too far off the mark to state that the Department of Education are allowing planning to proceed only at a snail's pace. Progress to date is not consistent with a three year time scale. There is an urgent necessity to proceed immediately with the construction of the new community school in Carrick-on-Shannon and I would ask the Minister and the Government to give priority to the development and make the required resources available immediately.