Opposition presses for more funds for school-building

The Government came under strong pressure in the Dáil last night to provide funding to repair school buildings throughout the State.

In a heated debate, a succession of Opposition deputies provided examples of schools in considerable disrepair.

The Labour spokeswoman on education, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said her party colleague, Ms Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South), instanced the case of Meanscoil an Leith-Triuigh in Cloghane, Co Kerry, which "is under investigation by the Health and Safety Authority and where one pupil keeps his pencil case plugged in a hole in the wall as it keeps the main entry point for the rats closed up."

The Government's record was defended by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, who said it was not possible to wipe out in the lifetime of one or two governments the cumulative deficit of generations and to deal with emerging needs at the same time.

"And despite the impression being created, the overwhelming bulk of the building programme is designed to deal with those emerging needs," he added.

Only a small proportion of schools in the building programme were in the "dilapidated, rat-infested category" so often heard about, he said. However, for anybody directly affected, it was a difficult and emotional issue and one which he was fully committed to addressing.

The exchanges took place during a debate on a Labour Private Members' motion condemning the Government's record and calling for a supplementary estimate to address the most urgent priority schools this year. The House will vote on the motion tonight.

Mr Dempsey said that in 1997, the last time Labour was in government with a Labour minister, 30 school building projects were under way at primary level. At second level, only 12 projects were under way, he added.

"That is in contrast with the 2003 school-building programme, which their motion tonight condemns, which contains 92 large-scale primary buildings projects and 36 post-primary projects recently completed.

"A total of 85 large-scale primary and 38 post-primary projects are currently under construction or have been authorised for construction. A further 26 projects are to be released to go to construction this year."

Ms O'Sullivan said this year's school-building programme was launched in January with proclamations of generosity and transparency. "An examination of the document shows that it is neither generous nor transparent," she added. "It is a document of deceit and procrastination."

She said the total amount of money for primary schools this year was €167.7 million and €175.2 million for post-primary schools. "However, most of this is already committed to projects already under construction from previous years. Only €10.3 million for primary schools and €17.2 million for post-primary schools was for new building projects."

The Fine Gael spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, said Mr Dempsey had trawled through the school building programme but very little had been done to progress any project.