Parents set to bring fight for schools funding to Europe
The Tuismitheoirí Le Chéile (TLC) group was set up in response to ongoing delays in Government funding for 600 schools they say are overcrowded and unsafe.
It already has support from more than 150 schools around the country and hopes teachers and parents in hundreds more will join the campaign.
“For too long things have been done on a local basis but we believe the best way forward is with a united front,” said TLC spokesperson Florence Horsman-Horgan. “We have a number of strategies planned, but we could go as far as bringing the case for funding to the European Ombudsman, who might decide the Government has to provide the money.”
The Department of Education last month published the list of schools at various stages of planning or construction for new buildings or refurbishments.
It outlined a spend of 343 million on primary and second level school building this year but hundreds more schools are still awaiting funding, leaving a large proportion of the country’s 450,000 primary pupils in dilapidated classrooms and prefabs.
Ms Horsman-Horgan said: “Rats, seeping sewage and lack of heating have closed down many restaurants. Do our children deserve any less protection, are they being told to put up with it or get out of school?
“We’re not blaming the Department of Education. It’s up to Charlie McCreevy to provide the money.”
TLC hopes to send tens of thousands of signatures attached to a letter to Education Minister Noel Dempsey in the next few months.
A number of regional meetings will be held later this month after the group is formally launched at a reception in Dublin next week.
A spokesperson for Mr Dempsey said the funding for 2004 would not be known until next November’s Book of Estimates is published by the Department of Finance.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation, which has been lobbying for improved primary schools for many years, said it backs any initiative to advance the cause.
