More than 60 parents picketed a national school in Co Donegal yesterday in protest at children with special needs being taught in a converted lavatory block in the school building.
Scoil Eoin Báiste, in Carrigart in the Rosgoill peninsula, converted some toilet blocks into teaching areas in 1999 after the creation of specific posts for children with special needs.
Principal Netty Gibson said yesterday the decision to convert the toilet blocks was to have been a temporary measure, after the school applied to the Department of Education for an extension.
However, six years on some of the pupils with special needs were still being taught in an area where there was a lavatory in daily use by the disabled.
Ms Gibson said she considered this to be a health hazard to pupils and staff alike and a contravention of the Health and Safety Act. "We are annoyed that the Department of Education expects us to cherish children and treat them equally and then treats us in this manner," she said.
She had been complaining to the Department of Education since 2000, as had members of her staff.
The department said yesterday that the school applied for the provision of a general purpose room and ancillary accommodation in November 1999.
"The pupil enrolment at the school has necessitated a further examination of the school's long-term accommodation needs, so as to ensure that any capital funding being provided is appropriate to meet the need," it said.
"The project will be progressed in the context of the School Building and Modernisation Fund, 2005-2009."
Senator Joe McHugh said the protest showed that the parents and the board of management meant business. "This is not once- off lobbying, it will be a continued effort. We would like a meeting with Minister Hanafin," he said.
One of the parents who picketed outside Scoil Eoin Báiste, Angela Davis, said the conditions some of the children had to endure "seemed barbaric".
Board of management chairman Fr Charlie Byrne said plans for the new extension had been approved two years ago. But "patience is now wearing thin, and anger and frustration have forced us to protest outside the school".