O’Keeffe comments - Schools crisis not the fault of teachers

FORMER junior minister Ned O’Keeffe is losing the run of himself.

He has rightly been accused of scurrilous accusations against the teachers and management at St Nessan’s primary school in Mungret, Co Limerick, where a classroom ceiling collapsed on young pupils.

Unsurprisingly, there was furious reaction to his suggestion that it was an accident waiting to happen and could have been prevented by the school authorities.

Is he proposing that teachers pay for school repairs out of their own pockets, thus letting the Government off the hook for its abject failings? Would Mr O’Keeffe pay for repairs at Leinster House?

That it was an accident waiting to happen applies to countless other schools around the country. Unwittingly, the deputy has summed up the warped priorities and miserly attitude of this Coalition. The Government, and not teachers, are to blame for neglecting primary schools and putting children’s lives at risk.