A Moville school teacher is calling for the defective blocks crisis to be solved before it affects the next generation of children.
Angeline Ruddy, who is a teacher at Moville Community College, said she has been frightened by the turmoil faced by her students and their families in crumbling homes.
The post-primary school has around 150 students and a quarter of the staff force who are living in homes built with defective blocks.
Ms Ruddy said the school community is not adequately equipped to support the young people.
Speaking at today’s Defective Block Conference in Letterkenny, Ms Ruddy said she was Home School Community Liason Coordinator a number of years ago, where she met families in “absolute turmoil in houses crumbling around them”.
At one home, she said: “My hand fitted through the crack in an outer wall and I know that family is still living in that home, they never see themselves as having an opportunity to access the scheme that required so much money upfront, it’s a white elephant for most ordinary families.”
Ms Ruddy said that families “need a leg up and not another form of inequality slammed upon them”.
“Donegal’s substantial burden of deprivation has been long-since recorded. We know that 42% of people living in this county are not in the workforce, we worked hard in schools to try and break that cycle and ensure students complete their education.
“Can you imagine the stress that students are under coming from mica homes?
“We need support in our schools. We are not coping with what has been thrown at us daily and we don’t have the skills to deal with what young people are going through.
“We need it to end with this generation and not continue on for the next few generations.”
The conference continues until 10pm, watch live at the link below: