Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Public Accounts Committee
2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills
12:00 pm
Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:
Yes, to build a permanent structure. It is a devolved grant and that is increasingly being taken up by schools. It is one of the reason the number of schools with prefabs has decreased. We are not increasing the number. With the success of completions on the schools building programme, schools are having temporary accommodation replaced while additional accommodation is being going ahead.
Finally, we have a prefabs replacement initiative, which was announced this time last year. Almost 200 schools have been offered an opportunity to avail of grant aid to replace rented prefab accommodation. A total of €35 million has been allocated to the initiative. Savings will arise in the long run. That is not to say, and I do not mean to convey, that we will not have children in prefabs, because we will. However, we have advanced with a number of initiatives to try to address the number of prefabs and the number of children in prefabs.
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