The pupils exposed to Victorian conditions in dank and rat-infested schools were lied to by Government Ministers, writes Jan O'Sullivan.
As usual during the general election campaign in May, the roadsides and telephone poles were strewn with party political posters appealing for votes. Your couldn't avoid them. They were all over the place.
What may have been lost in the midst of all these posters however were large billboards and posters outside many schools around the country. These billboards were not appealing for votes. They were looking for far more important things - simple things like basic toilet facilities, adequate heating, and physical education facilities. Most of these billboards read: "Please give us our new school, Minister".
That schools had to resort to such tactics to achieve publicity for their plight is a damning indictment of the five years of economic boom under Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. Hundreds of schools which the Irish National Teachers' Organisation have identified as substandard had hoped the boom years would bring about some improvement in conditions. Their hopes were to be dashed.
Even when the hopes of many schools were raised again in the days and weeks before the election, with the publication of a list of 800 school building projects which were being dealt with by the Department, those hopes were short-lived.
The list had to be dragged out of the Government despite daily promises from the Taoiseach in the Dáil since January.
The production of the list sparked a series of promises by Fianna Fáil candidates that their local school would be built or renovated within weeks. The then minister for education could hardly keep up with his schedule of whistle-stop visits to dozens of schools wherein he promised parents and teachers that he would "turn the sod" in a matter of months.
What he and the then government didn't tell parents and teachers was that they were being conned and cajoled into voting for the government on the basis of empty promises and political deceit.
Indeed, one wonders why these schools were not informed that in the midst of the campaign, Charlie McCreevy was finalising the millions of euro in cutbacks that would be rolled out immediately after the election.
They were not informed that Mr McCreevy was planning to cut 4 per cent from the primary school building budget in 2003. Instead, he told us: "no cutbacks whatsoever are being planned, secretly or otherwise". The shivering pupils in the dank and rat-infested schools were lied to.
THE revelation in this newspaper yesterday that 400 primary school projects are to be frozen will teach thousands of young children in damp and dilapidated schools the cruel lesson that adults, especially adults in powerful positions, cannot be trusted to keep their word. Is that what we want to teach them?
Of course, the list published yesterday does not include the secondary school projects which are awaiting advancement and which have also, no doubt, been put on the long finger.
At a time when the Health and Safety Authority is being invited into 34 schools to assess the appalling conditions, this revelation represents a further slap in the face to teachers and pupils in hundreds of derelict and substandard schools.
There are also cases in which local environmental health officers have to be brought into schools to assess the impact this is having on the pupils, some of whom have to wear their coats throughout the day because of inadequate heating in classrooms.
By inviting such inspections, teachers are clearly not convinced that the Government believes them when they outline the appalling conditions. It is as if the Government is forcing the onus of proof onto the schools to provide evidence for the need for repairs. Perhaps if Mr Dempsey spent more time visiting substandard schools, he would see the proof staring him in the face.
There will be no progress made on these schools in the year ahead if Charlie McCreevy tries to settle his debts by forcing young children and their teachers to work in Victorian conditions.
McCreevy and Co are great at bingeing on the public finances when the money is flowing - but when the cash-flow slows down, they are left scratching their heads, while schoolchildren are left sitting in cold and dreary classrooms.
It beggars belief that the Government will not get off its right-wing political high-horse and take the necessary decisions to provide the €250 million per annum for the next 10 years that would clear this list of shame.
The slogan "A lot done, more to do" might have bought the election for McCreevy and Co, but a more appropriate mantra for Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats might now be "Suffer the little children".
Jan O'Sullivan TD is the Labour Party spokeswoman on education