Dilapidated schools - Children’s plight used to buy votes

THERE is hardly a parish in Ireland where parents are not put under pressure to raise funds for the upkeep and refurbishment of the local primary school.

Clearly, they are taking on a role that should be filled by the State. But after years of neglect by successive governments, despairing parents feel obliged to pick up the bills for hundreds of schools fallen into neglect under the gaze of one minister for education after another.

Despite Education Minister Noel Dempsey’s increased budget, the situation is so dire in some areas that frustrated parents and teachers have taken to the picket lines, staging a series of strikes and protests in a bid to highlight the educational plight of their children.