A DISGRACE - like the middle of O'Connell St at rush hour - is how special school principal Paul, describes his school's staffroom.

"Our staffroom is the principal's office, the secretary's office, the meeting room, school reception and the place where childcare workers do individual work with the children," he says. "If you need a private talk with a parent or another member of staff there's nowhere to go."

The 20 feet by 10 feet room is home to the school's phone, computer and photocopier and also contains presses, teachers' lockers, tables and chairs.

Although there are only 10 teachers on the staff, they are forced to stagger their lunch breaks in order to fit into the room, he says. "We should have a place for an uninterrupted lunch and staff meetings."

In many older schools tiny and inadequate staffrooms are a hangover from the past when schools had relatively few teachers on their staffs. Teacher and pupil numbers have grown, but in physical terms, staffrooms have failed to keep pace.

Time was in some - but by no means all - schools run by religious orders, lay teachers were looked upon as a necessary evil to be given the barest minimum of facilities.

The religious tripped backwards and forwards to the monastery or convent for teas, coffees and lunches while the lay staff were forced to make do as best they could - even to the extent of decamping to the local railway station for a cup of tea, as was the case in one Dublin school.

One teacher recalls an early fight for a staffroom phone and the principal - a Brother - asking: "But sure who would be ringing you?"

"I would say that at least half of the staffrooms in schools in the voluntary and community and comprehensive sectors are inadequate and some are entirely unacceptable," says John White who is deputy general secretary of the ASTI.

As a minimum, he says, staffrooms should include a separate kitchen and eating area, a place for relaxation, a space to meet with students and parents and a quiet work room where teachers can prepare lessons and do their corrections. "In many schools," he says, "meetings between teachers and parents or pupils have to take place in halls and corridors because of a lack of space."

Schools too, need up to date phone systems, he says. Although almost all second level teachers now have access to a phone in the principal's office and many schools have a phone in the staffroom, these are often engaged during breaks and lunchtime and teachers remain difficult to contact.

An INTO survey of schools, undertaken in 1992, showed that 16 per cent of national schools lacked staff toilet facilities and 53 per cent had no kitchen facilities.

According to an INTO spokesperson the situation is marginally better now, but the union is aware that some schools staffrooms have been taken over as classrooms or storage rooms and cloakrooms have even been converted into staffrooms.

An INTO submission to the Department of Education in 1993 recommended that every school should have a staffroom with a power point, tables and chairs, shelving and storage facilities and cloakroom facilities. "These are the basics," says the spokesperson, "and we are aware that they do not exist in every school."

The chances though, of a school that is bursting at the seams obtaining a new staffroom and other facilities are limited.

Such new additions come out of the Department of Education's capital building programme which has been severely reduced in recent years.

In 1987 the primary school estimate for this programme stood at £30 million. This year it is down to £21 million, while at second level the 1987 estimate was £38 million which is down to £30 million for 1996.

Conversely, some schools have benefited from falling numbers.

"When I first came here and was shown into the staffroom, I thought there must be a mistake, this is the caretaker's room, it was so cramped and tiny," recalls an inner city, second level teacher.

"It took eight years of negotiations to persuade the Brothers that we needed a larger staffroom - with tea making and storage facilities - they didn't think we deserved it."

This year, the roomy disused classroom which was converted into a staffroom is undergoing another change. Until recently, the staffroom contained staff lockers which have now been moved out into the classrooms.

In an effort to cut down on school vandalism every teacher is now based in a classroom and it is the students who move from room to room rather than the teachers. As a result, the staffroom is less crowded and teachers are hoping that the rather spartan surroundings will benefit from the addition of a few easy chairs.

However, the downside of the new arrangement is that teachers are feeling more isolated.

Many teachers though, admit that poor facilities can often make for good staffroom camaraderie.

"We've learned to make a joke out of our lack of staffroom facilities," says one teacher. "In fact most of us quite like it rough and ready - at least the men do. We'd like a few improvements, but not too many.

Meanwhile, according to the INTO, staffroom improvements have been relatively low on the union's agenda because teachers fail to make an issue of them, preferring that extra spending be channelled into educational resources. However, the fact remains that the jobs of many teachers are made more difficult by the inadequacies of their facilities.