Parents of more than 100 pupils at a Co Limerick national school kept their children at home yesterday in protest over the Department of Education's refusal to provide funding for a school playground.
Half of the children at St James's National School in Cappagh, Co Limerick, cannot go outside during break time.
The school has 103 pupils and at present they have a play area of approximately two square feet per child. The 53 children allowed outside during break time cannot play due to lack of space, according to parents who protested with their children outside the school yesterday.
The parents decided to act after the school's board of management was refused €50,000 in funding for a hard-court play area under the Government's Summer Works Scheme 2007.
Parents and residents of the community raised some €53,000 for a school extension. The people of Cappagh cannot be expected to come up with any more money, says the parents' association.
"A school extension is being completed which is being built on the existing playground. Therefore we are left with no hardcourt surface," explained Anita Hawkes-Lyons, public relations officer of the Cappagh Parents' Council. "We are just talking about a play yard. We are not talking about anything posh with swings or slides, just an area to replace the play yard."
Mrs Hawkes-Lyons added: "I'm an organic farmer and there are conditions for how many square feet have to made available for chickens, yet there is no such requirement for children. It's a disgrace."
School principal Cyril Madigan said the board of management of the school could not endorse the protest and conceded that the parents were highlighting an "injustice". He said the €50,000 funding they were seeking would be used to tarmac a wet field at the back of the school which is off limits for seven months of the year because it is a "mud bath".
Labour's Jan O'Sullivan TD promised to raise the matter in the Dáil. Fine Gael Senator Michael Finucane said: "If this situation was in Foxrock or Rathfarnham in Dublin, the Government wouldn't allow this to happen."