In the dying months of the last government, a number of school strikes over atrocious conditions succeeded in pushing the issue up the political agenda, resulting in action in several cases.
The one-week strike by parents and pupils of Kilglass National School in south Roscommon last January was a case in point.
Media reports about the school's rat-infested and rundown building - including leaking roofs and outdoor toilets with broken doors - brought swift action from the Department of Education.
Work on a new building is proceeding with the help of a £130,000 grant.
The new building will not be ready until the end of the year, however, and in the meantime Bord na Mona has stepped into the breach.
Disused offices owned by the company at Derryfadda bog, about three miles from the school, have been leased to the school until Christmas for a nominal fee of £1.
The offices were built during the 1980s for a briquette factory that was never completed. The unoccupied offices have been maintained as a "strategic resource" ever since, according to the local Bord na Mona manager, Mr Tom Lucas.
"It was an opportunity for us to be neighbourly - some of our employees' children, and the children of former employees, go to the school," he said.
The temporary move will hopefully give the school's 66 students a new understanding of the importance of Irish boglands to the local and national economy.