Up to 70 teachers and parents delivered a letter of protest today at the condition of a Limerick primary school to the Fianna Fail TD Mr Willie O'Dea.
The group marched to Mr O'Dea's constituency office to complain to him about delays in providing five new classrooms, promised by the Government in February 2001.
A spokeswoman for St Nessan's National School in Mungret, Co Limerick, told ireland.comthe teachers presented a letter to Mr O'Dea at his Farrenshone constituency office this morning calling for an urgent meeting with the Minister for Education Mr Demspey to discuss the matter.
The spokeswoman added that teachers were angered and insulted at what they interpreted as an insinuation on the part of the Minister last night that they were "trying to jump the queue" on the school building programme on the back of the incident.
She said teachers and parent were demanding a safe working and that under the circumstances the school's requirements should be prioritised.
Second class pupils had a lucky escape when two plaster ceiling tiles fell from the roof of the school in hitting two eight-year-olds yesterday. No one was injured in the incident.
This afternoon the Office of Public Works (OPW) told all pupils taught in prefabs at the school to stay at home until next Thursday at the earliest.
The OPW will present a detailed engineering report next Wednesday at which point a decision will be made on whether they are safe for use for the remainder of the term. Inspectors from the OPW were carrying out further inspections on the prefabs today.
Some 139 pupils are taught in five prefabs at the school.
The Department of Education has promised funds to repair the damaged prefab. However, it has confirmed the school would remain in "Band Two" of the school building programme. This means St Nessan's is not on the priority list and will have to wait years for five new classrooms to replace its prefabs.
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