Last week in the Dail Independent TD Marian Harkin pressed the case for the new primary school for Dromore West. In stating the case for the school Marian Harkin said that parents were extremely frustrated by the continued delay in providing the vitally necessary primary school for Dromore West.
She continued: “Plan after plan for their new school has been submitted and then rejected. The parents are also concerned about the terrible conditions that obtain in the school. These conditions continue to deteriorate. The Health and Safety Authority has already expressed a real concern regarding the hopelessly overcrowded conditions that the teachers and pupils must endure every day. Those conditions read like something from a Dickensian novel.
One teacher operates solo in the old church classroom. Staff members must boil a kettle to make a cup of tea in the classroom and, having finished their tea, they must wash the cup in the same hand basin in which they wash their hands. The so-called office of the school secretary is in a tiny girls’ cloakroom and she has the pleasure of sharing this cubbyhole with the principal when she is involved in administrative duties. Recently a male teacher taught in the school and he did not even have the luxury of a toilet to use. How can any teacher or student be expected to spend their days in these conditions?
It is difficult to believe that, according to the statistics, Ireland is the second richest country in Europe. Many of my colleagues in the European Parliament look to Ireland as an example of economic success. There is not much sign of such success in Dromore West primary school. I am sure the Minister of State believes no teacher or student should have to endure these conditions. The parents, teachers and students need a new school, large enough to accommodate the expanding population of the village, for which 100 new houses are proposed. While the process is under way, the community wants a guarantee from the Minister that there will be no further delays or hold ups”, Marian Harkin said.
Replying on behalf the Minister for Education Ms. Mary Hanifin, Junior Minister Conor Lenihan said: “The building project for Dromore West national school was one of a number approved by the Department announced 2005 to progress to architectural planning. This project is at stage 3 - developed sketch scheme. The brief is to provide adequate accommodation for a principal and four classroom teachers, with the possibility of future expansion. A letter issued to the board of management in May 2006 requesting additional stage 3 information, which was submitted by the board in August 2006. The stage 3 submission received in the Department deviated from the agreed brief for the building project and, consequently, the Department wrote to the board of management seeking a revised stage 3, in accordance with the agreed brief. When the revised stage 3 submission is received in the Department, a meeting will be convened, which will involve the board of management representative and the design team presenting the submission, outlining key aspects of same. Any issues or commentary by the Department will be addressed at the meeting and the minutes of the meeting will issue to the school afterwards as a formal record of the meeting.
“It is envisaged that, unless there are very exceptional circumstances involved, the meeting will be sufficient to authorise the project to progress to the next stage of architectural planning, subject, if necessary, to formal confirmation by the school and the design team that issues raised by the Department have been addressed. In the case of all large capital projects on hand within the school building section, progression of projects to construction will be considered in the context of the school building programme”, he concluded.
Commenting on the Minister’s response Marian Harkin said that the school’s building programme continued to be unnecessarily bureaucratic and she urged parents through Management Boards and through their own personal lobby efforts to maintain pressure on all politicians and to use the opportunity of an election year to press for the legitimate right to proper schools facilities for their children.
