The Department of Education's schools buildings budget has been used by Fianna Fáil in "a cynical exercise" to win votes in key marginal constituencies, the Labour Party has charged.
Despite promises last January, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has failed to publish a list of the 850 schools most needing investment, some of which are without toilets and running water.
"Fianna Fáil has deliberately kept the truth under wraps and is selectively leaking details to some schools in a desperate attempt to win votes," said outgoing Labour Dublin North West TD, Ms Róisín Shortall.
Some schools have been promoted up the list, Labour alleges, to maximise Fianna Fáil's support, including in the Taoiseach's own Dublin Central constituency.
"Gaelscoil Barra in Cabra has been waiting for years for a new building. Bertie Ahern came to the school to say that the tender was going ahead," said Labour's Dublin Central candidate, Senator Joe Costello.
If put into office, Labour would double capitation grants for primary and secondary schools, guarantee all children a year in pre-school before they go on to primary school and devolve power away from the Department of Education.
The number of schoolchildren now working part-time, particularly in poor areas, has had "a huge impact" on attendance levels. "In some places, just 50 per cent attend on a Monday morning," said Ms Shortall.
Labour laws banning children working after 10 p.m. must be enforced rigidly. "The children are exhausted, and the money they get gives them the access to an adult's social life," she warned.
• Senator Costello became a victim of crime yesterday. Leaving an hour-long press conference in the RHA Gallery on Ely Place in Dublin, the senator found the driver's window of his car smashed, and his mobile telephone stolen.
Mr Costello called his own telephone in an attempt to get it back, for the thief to tell him the mobile he was calling was not stolen, and then hang up on him.
"And he had a middle-class accent, too," Mr Costello said.
