Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Since the beginning of 2000 my Department has spent €74,300,212 on the purchase of prefabricated buildings in the primary and post-primary sectors. This expenditure was for the supply and installation of the prefabricated buildings, including associated site works, and other costs such as for compliance with planning permission conditions, professional fees, connections for water, electricity and sewage.

The breakdown of this expenditure ranges from approximately €4.5 million in 2000, increasing to €770,310 to date in 2005. The figure of €74 million constitutes less than 5% of total expenditure on school buildings between 2000 and 2004. The total spent on primary and post-primary school buildings, including public private partnership projects at second level, is €1.6 billion.

Demand for additional accommodation in schools has risen significantly in recent years, mainly due to the rapid expansion in teacher numbers, particularly in the area of special needs, the growth in the school-going population in rapidly developing areas and demands to cater for diversity through the recognition of new Gaelscoileanna and Educate Together schools.

The focus within my Department is to empower schools to resolve their accommodation needs, wherever possible, in a permanent manner rather than relying on temporary accommodation. To reduce the amount of temporary accommodation at primary level an initiative was launched in 2003, the purpose of which is to allow primary schools to undertake a permanent solution to their classroom accommodation needs and to achieve the best value for money. The feedback from the 20 schools in the pilot was positive and the initiative was expanded to include 44 additional primary schools in 2004. More than 70 schools have been invited to participate in the initiative in 2005.

My Department has also used other innovative solutions to deliver urgently required permanent accommodation for schools in rapidly developing areas. An example of this is the new 16 classroom primary school for Griffeen Valley Educate Together national school in Lucan, which was delivered through the use of a design and build contract within 13 months.

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