More than €50 million was spent by the Government on temporary prefabricated buildings for schools last year, the Minister for Education has revealed.
A total of €112,860,000 has been spent on school prefabs over 2006, 2007 and 2008, according to Minister Batt O’Keeffe.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question by Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes, Mr O’Keeffe reveals that €24.5 million was spent on prefabs in 2006, €35.5 million in 2007 and :€52.86 million last year.
Mr O’Keeffe points out in the answer that demand for additional accommodation in schools has “risen significantly over the last number of years, with the appointment of 6,000 extra teachers in the primary sector alone since 2002.
“In considering the need to provide extra resource and other teachers to schools in recent years, the Government could have decided to make children wait until permanent accommodation could be provided,” Mr O’Keeffe added.
“However, we prioritised putting the extra teachers into schools as soon as possible.”
He said the need for prefabs would continue “because competing priorities mean that it will not always be possible to have a permanent accommodation solution in place in a short timeframe. He said a further €48 million would spent on prefabs this year.
Mr Hayes said the minister must review the cost of renting prefabs in light of falling rents in commercial and residential sectors. “Spending this unfathomable amount of cash on prefabs cannot possibly be justified,” he said.
“The money that is spent on renting prefabs in our school system is effectively dead money.” He said the downturn in the economy provided a new opportunity to radically increase the school building programme over the next few years.
