A small school near Mallow, Co Cork, has been lobbying for a general-purpose room since 1996, but to no avail. "This room is serving too many purposes and not serving any of them well," says John F O'Sullivan, principal of Burnfoot National School, as he sits in the staffroom which houses a secretary, has a small remedial teaching area and an audio-visual unit - as well as serving as a cloakroom.

This pre-fab room is undoubtedly far too small for all these purposes. The school has been lobbying for a general-purpose room for some time, but to no avail. With only three teachers, the school falls short of the required four teachers which would entitle it to such a room.

There are 71 pupils in the Burnfoot school which was founded in 1877. The main part of the school was renovated four years ago. "Unfortunately, the pre-fabs were not removed at the time because the local contribution had reached its maximum. The total cost of the renovation was £57,000, of which the Department gave 85 per cent. The rest of the money was raised locally," says O'Sullivan, who teaches fifth and sixth class.

"There are 20 children housed in that pre-fab," he says, pointing through the window of the staffroom. "It's overcrowded and unhealthy and gets very stuffy in the warm weather. It has to be heated very carefully in the winter. If you don't have it up to maximum in the cold mornings, it's like an ice-box.

"We're looking for a general-purposes room as well as some ancillary rooms: a staffroom, a remedial room, a library and an office. The strange thing about the Department is that it will grant-aid all those ancillary rooms but not a general-purpose room," says O'Sullivan, who says he has been putting on the pressure since December 1996.

"We sent an application in for the facilities. There was a reply in 1998 from the Department's building section in Tullamore. Their planning officer came down from Tullamore and examined the school. The Office of Public Works in Cork compiled a report, but still no decision was made. We're now in the process of pressurising the building section in Tullamore to give us the okay to draw up the plans. "We have an inkling that we'll get some of what we're looking for, but will have to fund the general-purpose room ourselves."

The room would cost in the region of £35,000. "How could we raise that? We're a very small parish of about 1,000 people. We have only 37 families attending the school. "I am aware that the local contribution has been dropped by Micheal Martin to 5 per cent instead of 15 per cent, which makes a big difference. But the big question is whether we can get the grant for the general-purpose room. If we don't get the money now, we'll never get it."

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Science said the Department is aware of the situation at Burnfoot. "We acknowledge that it would be desirable to have a general-purpose room in the school. But at the moment we are concentrating on essential classroom accommodation and getting rid of sub-standard classrooms. Our long term aim is, of course, to try and improve conditions."