I would like to share my time with Senator O'Toole if the House has no objections.
Adjournment Matters. - Carrick-on-Shannon National School.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad and congratulate him on his reappointment as Minister of State at the Department of Education.
I regret having to raise this issue. The appalling condition of Carrick-on-Shannon primary school for boys has been an ongoing sore within the Department and in Carrick-on-Shannon for the last number of years. Unfortunately it has reached the stage that the teachers and parents have decided to highlight the position by going on strike tomorrow.
In 1971, pre-fabricated buildings were provided at Carrick-on-Shannon national school. The life of the prefabricated building is ten years, but they have been in place for over 20 years. They are leaking, decayed and rotten. Not only have the children and teachers to tolerate that but the school is rat-infested. That is something no parent, pupil or teacher should have to put up with in this day and age.
Prior to the 1992 general election the Taoiseach, Deputy Reynolds gave a commitment to the parents and teachers of Carrick-on-Shannon primary school that building would start in January. That commitment was also given by Deputy Ellis and Deputy Bree, now affiliated to the Government. January has passed and no building work has taken place. I have no doubt but that these election promises were waived. The sitution is too serious to make a political issue out of. At this stage, the Carrick-on-Shannon school should be at the top of the priority list for renovations and maintenance.
There are 120 pupils in a school with three class rooms. The wood is so rotten that it is unable to take glass. The conditions are appalling; I was there within the last few weeks. I ask the Minister to give a commitment this evening that money will be provided for work on Carrick-on-Shannon national school immediately. The school has received planning permission for all the works required. They received a letter from the Department of Education stating that the work had gone for tender more than two years ago but, unfortunately, the money has not been provided. The Department is aware of the problem and I hope that the Minister will give a commitment that money will be made available to enable work to start immediately.
What we see here is the Government's utter rejection and abandonment of the primary education building programme. Despite the great rhetoric and empty promises we listened to during the election, they have just walked away from it. As long as primary schools are expected to operate in rat-infested, leaking, windowless, overcrowded buildings, I will object to it.
The remedial room in Carrick-on-Shannon primary school is six square yards. Can you imagine a room of six square yards? This is only one of a series of schools and it is a reflection of the Government's approach to this area. A mere £2 million extra was provided for primary school building in the Estimates published yesterday. In a school system with 3,500 primary schools, that amount would not build 40 or 50 extra classrooms. The people of Carrick-on-Shannon are to be complimented for this campaign. Similar campaigns will be mounted in every county until the conditions in primary schools are equal to those in third level education institutions.
It is unacceptable that our so called young generation, our hope for the future, are being asked to learn in conditions which would have been ruled substandard in Victorian times or in which industrial workers would refuse to work. The children in Carrick-on-Shannon are pawns in a game; they have been neglected and abandoned by the Government. Tomorrow, the educational partners in that town will be putting their viewpoint to the Government and I will be with them.
I know the Minister's personal commitment in the area. I know he will say what his script requires but he knows as well as I do that this money is not enough to deal with the problem. In 1987, the annual building budget for primary schools was £30 million, and that was the average for the previous number of years. At that time there was a 15 year waiting list. The money provided in this year's Estimates is not enough to cope with the problem. Schools have been played off against each other for the last number of years; they do not know what chance they have to get extra funds. The Department should publish a list of the schools to be dealt with in each calendar year and stop trying to fool the people in different towns and schools throughout Ireland. They should be straight and admit that they are not going to touch a certain school for a number of years. The reality is that many of them are being misled.
In 1989, Carrick-on-Shannon received a commitment from the Minister for Education and the then Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. In September 1992, they got a written commitment from the Minister for Education, Deputy Brennan; last November, they got a commitment from the Taoiseach, Deputy Reynolds that their school would be included in the Estimates this year, and that is on the record. These were all misleading statements and I do not know how any Minister can stand over that kind of carry on. It is untenable and an abandonment of education in the area. It will be fought and resisted by the educational partners from Carrick-on-Shannon and the rest of the country.
I thank Senator Reynolds and Senator O'Toole for raising this matter, and I thank Senator Reynolds for his kind remarks.
The present position is that an application has been made to my Department for the provision of a permanent extension to St. Mary's boy's national school in Carrick-on-Shannon. The present accommodation at the school consists of three permanent classrooms and one pre-fabricated classroom. The staff comprises a principal and three assistant teachers and the current enrolment is 117 pupils. The Department has approved a major building project which would have involved the retention of two of the existing classrooms, conversion of the third classroom into a staff room and library and the construction of two further permanent classrooms. The estimated cost of this project is in the region of £90,000. Architectural planning had commenced and planning permission was received from the local authority.
However, an option which has to be considered at this stage in the light of the up-to-date information is whether amalgamation of St. Mary's national school and the girls' school should be considered in the context of surplus accommodation in the girls national school and in the light of projected future enrolments. Preliminary indications are that there probably would be sufficient accommodation in the convent national school to accommodate, with adaptation and development, the entire boys' and girls' primary school population. The Department will contact the relevant school authorities in the near future in order to decide on the appropriate course of action regarding the provision of primary school accommodation needs for Carrick-on-Shannon in future years.
I am personally aware of this case. It has been brought to my attention on several occasions and I give Senators an undertaking that I will arrange a meeting in the immediate future. In line with what Senator O'Toole said, the Estimates were published yesterday, priorities have been drawn up in the Department and I hope to have Carrick-on-Shannon included on that priority list.