I thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, on his recent appointment. The general view is that it was an appointment well made.
There is need to construct four classrooms as well as additional toilets, a cloakroom and a store room in Pallaskenry national school, County Limerick. As a proposal has been with the Department for the past 18 months, this issue must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Currently 70 pupils are catered for in two classrooms situated in a totally unsuitable 20 year old prefabricated building. A remedial teacher also works in the building. It has been used as a school for 11 years and was in service for eight years prior to that.
Everyone accepts that prefabricated buildings are unsuitable. It is unacceptable to allow school children use such facilities. Teachers cannot do their work properly because of the conditions in which they work. The building is in an extremely bad state of repair. While some moneys were provided for work last year it was merely a holding operation which did not improve the situation. I visited the school last year and my foot went through the floor. The external walls of the building are rotting and there is dry rot in the floors of the classrooms. The building is cold in winter and warm in summer. In warm weather classes are obliged to move outdoors because of the intense heat. There is no insulation nor is there a toilet attached to the building. Children are obliged to cross the main school yard to reach the toilet which creates enormous difficulties during wet weather. Pupils must cross from the permanent structure to the prefabricated classrooms under similar conditions to receive remedial teaching. The Minister will agree this is unsatisfactory.
The school has a current staffing level of a principal and seven assistant teachers, one of whom is a shared remedial teacher. The school has an enrolment figure of 194. The accommodation in the school consists of five permanent classrooms and three prefabricated structure classrooms.
The board of management wrote to the Department seeking approval for the replacement of the prefabricated rooms and the planning section of the Department undertook a full review of enrolment trends at the school. Following that review, it was considered that the school's medium to long-term accommodation requirement was six permanent classrooms, a general purpose room and ancillary accommodation. In August 1996 the Department advised the school's board of management that it considered the provision of an additional classroom, a general purpose room and ancillary accommodation would satisfy the accommodation needs of the school.
Pallaskenry is a growing town. It is a satellite of Limerick city and the student population has expanded in the past 20 years, and will continue to expand. The population has quadrupled in that period. Council housing estates have been built and building developments have been initiated by Aughinish Alumina as well as private developments. It is an attractive area and there is a great demand for sites. More families will move to this area.
The current position is totally unsatisfactory and we should pay tribute to the teachers who are working under such conditions and the tolerance of the parents. Demonstrations take place outside this House from time to time and we should respond favourably to the parents in Pallaskenry who are protesting as effectively as they can without doing so publicly. I understand procedures are necessary and various stages must be gone through but I ask the Minister of State to move this process forward quickly.
I was disappointed last week to obtain notice of a reply to a question to the effect that £20,000 was spent to repair prefabricated classrooms and that this should satisfy the parents. When we discussed this matter with the Department in Tullamore it was made clear that the acceptance of the £20,000 would not interfere in any way with building the new classrooms required.
