Hanafin accused of evading questions on prefabs

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin was accused in the Dáil of deliberately evading questions during a row about the terms of contracts for the rental of prefab school accommodation.

Labour's education spokesman Ruairí Quinn sharply criticised the Minister and said she was "answering every question that was not asked and refusing to answer the questions asked".

Mr Quinn said "the House has a function to hold the Minister to account, not to be an applause machine for public relations exercises".

Ms Hanafin said however that "a Minister cannot be criticised for putting on the record what is occurring in respect of a substantial building programme".

Speaking during education question time, the Minister said that "I ran out of time before I reached page four of my reply" and explained that "in practice, a rental contract is between the school's board of management and the supplying contractor".

Mr Quinn had previously asked a written parliamentary question about the number of contracts the Department of Education had for primary schools to rent prefabs, the costs per unit each year and how long the prefabs were guaranteed.