Gaelscoil Bharra saga has gone on far too long
Issued : Friday 16 October, 2009
Statement by Joe Costello TD
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development
The saga of Gaelscoil Bharra has been raised by me in the Dail on a number of occasions.
Yesterday the school’s staff, parents and children protested outside the Department of Education and Science in Marlborough St, today they are releasing their single, as Gaeilge, appropriately titled “Ca bhfuil ar Scoil?”
I hope it tops the charts for them so that it focuses attention on the neglect of Gaelscoil Bharra and of the dozens of other primary schools that are operating in appalling conditions around the country.
It came as a shock to me and to the parents in Gaelscoil Bharra that the Minister has spent only half of his budget allocation earmarked for school building projects. The Minister is saving money that has already been allocated to accommodate our vulnerable children in proper hygienic and suitable learning environments. This is scandalous .
Minister – spend that money on the schools like Gaelscoil Bharra who deserve this support.
Gaelscoil Bharra is now entering its 14th year in totally unsatisfactory prefabs.
It is to the great credit of the Teachers, Board of Management, parents and the students themselves that the school has delivered a positive educational experience for the 220 pupils at the school. The school has been shown to be viable and a credit to its community. The school is based in outdated prefabs with toilets backing up and young children working in damp smelly conditions. With the onset of winter we know that the heating is inadequate and unsatisfactory.
Gaelscoil Bharra, its parents and staff were made promises by Fianna Fail of a new school in the last three elections. All of these promises have been broken.
The Department of Education and Science as far back as 2000 - stated that the deplorable condition of the temporary accommodation made it imperative that the planning process be initiated as soon as possible. That was nine years ago.
In June of this year when the Gaelscoil undertook a “Siuil Mor” to the Department’s offices in Marlborough St; Minister O’ Keefe urged the parents to show “a small bit of patience in the matter”.
One of the parents who had a child in the school remarked that the Minister wouldn’t work in the conditions faced by the school and neither should the teachers and pupils have to do so.
Since its foundation a second full generation of children has almost gone through this school. The conditions are now actually worse than ever.
There has been much toing and froing involving the Department of Education and Science, the Local Authority and the GAA on whose premises the Gaelscoil is situated and the Board of Management but the logjam remains.
Still we do not have a site and no resolution in sight. I have studied closely the responses from the Minister and his juniors but despite the honeyed words we do not seem to have moved the matter towards a satisfactory conclusion.
The resilient parents and teachers deserve better. So do their children.
