Staff at a Limerick primary school that has not been refurbished in almost 100 years have expressed their outrage that plans for a new school building have been further delayed.
Kilfinane National School, which has seven teachers and 150 pupils, opened in 1897 and was last refurbished in 1909.
Classrooms, which staff say are overcrowded, are divided by temporary partitions while toilets and offices are in the school yard.
There are no sports facilities, no proper toilet facilities for adults, no staff room, and learning support teachers work out of cubicles, say teachers at the school.
In 2001 a feasibility study found the school was unsuitable for refurbishment and the Department of Education recommended that a new school be built.
A site was donated by a group of local nuns and a new building was designed.
It was expected that the project would go out for tender last week but principal Angela Hennessey has been told that no date could be given for the start of construction.
"There's a huge sense of outrage here at the thought of this project being delayed for any length of time again, after all the other delays we've had over the years," said Ms Hennessey.
Marion O'Shaughnessy, who has been teaching at the school for 20 years, said some teachers who live nearby go home at lunchtime if they need to use the toilet.
"My mother who is 85 years old started school here 80 years ago and she cannot believe we are still teaching in the same conditions," said Ms O'Shaughnessy.
In the Dáil on Tuesday, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said it was not possible to say when construction would begin .