This article is from page 2 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
HEALTHY children as young as six have been struck down with pneumo- nia due to “third world” conditions in an Ennis National School.
Parent and member of the Board of Management Dr Aine Ni Riain stressed that the parents were not by nature a militant body of people, but they had genuine concerns for the health and safety of their children.
“This is not about a fancy looking school, this is about a school that is safe enough for children to attend,” she said.
“The building itself is grossly out- dated, it smells of damp, the clothes the children wear have to be washed because if you leave clothes in a bag overnight the smell of mould and wet that comes with it in the morning is quite disgusting,’ she said.
“My son has had pneumonia in this school, a young healthy boy along with a number of his class. They would not have got pneumonia in a different situation,’ said Dr Ni Riain, a medical practitioner. At the time the children were in senior infants.
“If we were a small company we would have been long since shut
down. I think it is disingenuous of the Government to close down small companies on the grounds of health and safety, and allow 664 children and staff to be educated in conditions that are grossly substandard and bor- derline third world,’ she said.
The parents have a number of con- cerns about the school that was con- demned by the Health and Safety Authority in 2003. It is now situated on a very busy junction, making the task of transporting the 664 children to and from school very dangerous.
It is a disaster waiting to happen ac- cording to Dr Ni Riain,
The cars of 52 staff members also have to be accommodated, minimis- ing the space for children to play.
She pointed out that access to the prefabs was by stairs which were slippery on wet days.
“We have a number of children with special needs for whom ramps have had to be built and even those aren’t safe. There is safety concerns for access to the building in all sorts of conditions across the yard,” she Crate
The parents stressed that Wednes- day’s protest was the first of many measures.