Gaelscoil protesters target Ahern

The Taoiseach was presented yesterday with an Easter egg by parents and children protesting against conditions at a gaelscoil in north Dublin.

Mr Ahern admitted he was surprised to hear about the lack of progress in relation to Gaelscoil Cholmcille, which is based at St Kevin's Boys Football Club in Santry and promised to look into the matter next week.

About 50 parents and pupils of the school protested outside the Taoiseach's St Luke's office in Drumcondra yesterday morning. Last month they presented the Taoiseach with a bowl of shamrock as a parody of his traditional St Patrick's Day gift to the US president.

The protesters say the school, which has 225 pupils, has never had a site of its own since it was established in 1996.

They point to a report commissioned by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation three years ago which found the school to be "in serious breach of its minimum legal obligations". The location, above a gymnasium at the club, was said to be unsafe and insecure, the report stated.

The parents say a Department of Education promise to have the school relocated last September was not fulfilled and they are now frustrated by the progress of plans to move the school to a vacated building on the Larkhill campus at Santry by the start of the next school year.

They were alarmed when plans to put the refurbishment of the building out to tender were not fulfilled in January this year.

"We came here to remind him of the conditions which our children have to endure and the snail's pace of change," said Joe Murray, who has three children at the school.

Although the school is not in the Taoiseach's constituency many of the pupils who attend it are from there.

The Gaelscoil Cholmcille Action Group will be launching a "No School - No Vote" campaign, which will target local Government TDs Noel Ahern, the Taoiseach's brother, and the Minister of State for Education, Seán Haughey.

Among those who turned out yesterday was the former Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna, now a candidate in the Taoiseach's constituency. Her 10- year-old son Oisín is a pupil at the school.

She said: "It's totally unacceptable that despite years of political promises and guarantees the idea of a school for my son is still a pipe dream."