An estimated 250,000 Irish children are attending school in substandard classrooms, the Fine Gael spokesman on education, Mr Michael Creed, told the Dáil.
"Teachers and parents are up in arms about this, and the Minister for Education, once again, is unable to resolve the problem," he said.
Mr Creed was introducing a Fine Gael private member's motion critical of the Government's failure to manage the school building unit and facilitate greater use of public-private partnerships.
He said that with over 850 schools on the Department's waiting list it was obvious that innovative approaches were necessary if the problem was to be resolved. Public-private partnerships should be introduced for large school-building projects.
Mr Creed called for the introduction of design-and-build contracts to eliminate bureaucracy, adding that there should be greater involvement for local boards of management.
A significant increase in the capital provision for the school building unit, as well as the immediate publication of the school accommodation database, were also required, he said.
The Labour spokeswoman on education, Ms Roisin Shortall, said that conditions associated with early 20th-century Ireland had been allowed to remain in schools up and down the State.
"They are an indictment of a Government prepared to spend the nation's surpluses on the whims of Ministers rather than the real needs of children," she added.
An INTO survey of over 1,200 primary schools in April 2000 had found that many still claimed to be vermin-infested, overcrowded and totally inadequate in terms of basic hygiene.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said that as a result of past underinvestment, over the course of decades, many schools were in a poor state of repair and required substantial funding for upgrading.
The Government, he added, had spent massive sums of money in modernising educational infrastructure. Debate on the motion resumes tonight.
