Yesterday's announcement of a €387 million school building programme for 2004 is to be welcomed. The programme, the largest in the history of the State, represents a determined effort to resolve the school accommodation crisis.
That crisis has been allowed to persist for much too long. Today, the sorry state of many of our school buildings remains a blot on the landscape. The INTO estimates some 400 schools at primary level require renovation or replacement. Third World conditions are not uncommon in many primary schools. Many pupils and teachers are working in damp, dilapidated schools. Some have no internal sanitation. Many have no common meeting room for teachers or students.
In many cases, the anger felt among these school communities has been compounded by the cynical manner in which they have been treated by the political process. In the run-up to the last election, many of these schools were told that their particular project would be given priority. Most are still waiting for the bulldozers to move in.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey - who inherited the crisis - says he is attempting to bring some order to the chaos. He is attempting now to distance himself from the promises made on the eve of the election. He has also created new structures where schools are given priority on the basis of agreed criteria. The Minister insists it will no longer be good enough to bend the ear of a local politician or dignitary, in order to jump the queue.
Considerable progress has been made in addressing the issue in recent months; this is reflected in yesterday's announcement. The Department says 170 major building projects will proceed to tender and construction next year, compared to only a fraction of this figure in 2003. The new multi-annual approach for capital projects provided for in the recent Budget means that the same level of investment in school buildings can be expected every year between now and 2006.
There is, as the INTO acknowledged yesterday, a sense that real progress is being made.
Mr Dempsey deserves credit for giving the issue the priority it so clearly deserves. But the achievement of the INTO must also be acknowledged. More than any other single group, the union - and its general secretary, Mr John Carr - helped to bring the scandal of rotten school buildings to the attention of the public.
But the school accommodation crisis is not over. Many schools are continuing to endure Dickensian conditions. At last, however, there is a sense that progress is being made.