SOME 50 schoolchildren from Dublin's Tallaght chanting "Scoil nua go luath" picketed the Dail yesterday morning in protest at the exclusion of their all Irish second level school from this year's Department of Education building programme.
The children, from the 151 student Colaiste de hIde, had been withdrawn from classes by their parents for the day. They distributed a leaflet to passers by which quoted the Minister, Ms Breathnach, agreeing in reply to a Dail question in November that there was a pressing need for a 600 place new building for the school. The school has been housed entirely in prefabs since its foundation in 1993.
Colaiste de hIde was started by parents from Tallaght's two all Irish primary schools - which now have around 600 pupils between them - who wanted a local all Irish second level school for their children.
A member of the parents association, Mr Micheal Mac Iomhair, said a site in Tymon Park had been sanctioned in 1995 by the Minister. In answer to a Dail question last November the Minister had agreed there was a pressing need for the school to have permanent accommodation, and the project would "receive every priority".
He said the parents considered it "an outrage that in 1997, 151 students were educated each day in pre fabricated buildings on a one third acre site, with no canteen, no school hall, and no yard to play in".
Ms Breathnach yesterday appealed to the parents to call off their protest and the students to return to school "in the light of major progress made in securing a suitable site for the new school". She said the Co Dublin VEC had provided the Department with and outline sketch of the new school, and "architectural planning is progressing as a matter of urgency".
When all the legally required planning stages had been completed, it would be "considered for tendering in the light of the capital moneys available", the Minister added.