Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Education and Science, further to her reply to Parliamentary Question No. 158 of 1 November 2007, the reason her Department has sanctioned money to primary schools to rent prefabs as temporary accommodation for a period of three years or less but has no details of the terms of the contract and the rental cost between the school authority and the rental company as she has already indicated the sum involved is €24.5 million; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28490/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Increased enrolments and the appointment of nearly 5,000 extra primary teachers since 2002 alone have created a considerable demand for extra school accommodation in recent years. This is being met by unprecedented investment in the school building programme, with more than €540 million being spent this year.

My Department has sought to provide schools with permanent solutions to their accommodation needs where possible. Construction in 2007 alone will deliver more than 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for more than 17,500 pupils, mainly in developing areas.

One of the methods that has helped us to keep expenditure on prefabs at a minimum has been the introduction of the permanent accommodation scheme. Since 2003, schools have been offered capital funding to build extra classrooms rather than taking prefabs. Between 2003 and 2006, 200 schools were approved under this scheme, at a total cost of €54.1 million, but last year, €27.5 million was provided for this scheme. We have dramatically increased the allocation in 2007 to €47.4 million to allow more than 305 classrooms and 182 resource rooms to be sanctioned this year alone.

This and other initiatives have enabled us to keep expenditure on the rental of temporary accommodation low. The Deputy's question refers to the fact that €24.5 million was spent on rental last year. I should also point out that while much of this rented accommodation is in prefabricated units it can also include the rental of buildings. It is important to put this figure in context. In fact, it amounts to less than 5% of the almost €525 million invested in school buildings last year.

Where accommodation is needed at very short notice, however, temporary accommodation can be the only option. Such accommodation may also be used where the need is short-term, such as when a school requires a temporary building or is awaiting the completion of construction of permanent facilities.

With a view to shortening construction times and achieving better value for money, my Department has developed standard designs for primary schools, known as generic repeat designs. Using such a design, the construction of Griffeen Valley Educate Together school took only five months.

We are also moving towards greater use of system build accommodation, whereby a significant amount of the construction work for school buildings can be completed off-site while planning permission is awaited. Using this type of approach, my Department was able to provide a new 16 classroom school in Laytown this year.

As part of the strategy for the provision of school places for 2008 and onwards, my Department has initiated a tender process for a drawdown contract facility that will be used to provide additional school places in the rapidly developing areas. This is aimed at providing school accommodation in very short timescales using modern methodologies such as off-site construction. We are using a range of methods, therefore, to limit the need for temporary accommodation.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Regarding the information on individual rental agreements sought by the Deputy, the situation is that in general, the board of management of a school is responsible for acquiring temporary accommodation, including the procurement of prefabs. In practice, a rental contract is between a school's board of management and a supplying contractor.

It is important to emphasise that the Department examines all applications for additional accommodation on an individual basis to determine if the need exists in the first instance. My officials also decide if the level of funding being sought by a school for prefab rental is acceptable. My Department is satisfied that adequate financial management measures are in place and that comprehensive information is available on individual records held on individual school files. However, my Department does not have details of all of these contractual arrangements entered into by schools available in a format that provides readily accessible cumulative information on the overall position. It is intended to address this issue as part of a general review of rental policy currently being undertaken by my Department.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for her reply, but had I replied similarly to a question she set for me in one of the classes she occupied expertly in Sion Hill, I would have failed. She did not answer a question I asked clearly. She gave the House a wonderful story about construction and all sorts of other things, but it did not address the question. Nor did she answer Deputy Brian Hayes's question. My question related to the Minister's previous misleading reply which read:

To ask the Minister for Education and Science further to her reply to Parliamentary Question No. 158 of 1 November 2007, the reason her Department has sanctioned money to primary schools to rent prefabs as temporary accommodation for a period of three years or less but has no details of the terms of the contract and the rental cost between the school authority and the rental company as she has already indicated the sum involved is €24.5 million; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

That is what I wanted to find out. The rest of the information, for which I thank the Minister, was wonderful but irrelevant to my question. She is deliberately evading parliamentary questions a second time by answering every question that was not asked and refusing to answer the questions asked.

We are discussing Allspace Limited prefabs, which have a guaranteed life expectancy of 30 years and a possible expectancy of up to 50 years. My question asked whether the Minister examines the terms of the contracts, it did not relate to the other wonderful, irrelevant information. I was happy to receive them, but they were not the answer.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A Minister cannot be criticised for putting on the record what is occurring in respect of a substantial building programme. My reply, which has been circulated to the Deputy, stated——

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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On a point of order, the House has a function to hold the Minister to account, not to be an applause machine for public relations exercises.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That is not a point of order.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I ran out of time before I reached page four of my reply, but it will be circulated to the Deputy.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Deputies do not even have page one.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It stated:

The board of management of a school is responsible for acquiring temporary accommodation, including the procurement of prefabs. In practice, a rental contract is between the school's board of management and the supplying contractor.

The Department examines all applications for additional accommodation to determine whether it is necessary and we determine the level of funding sought by a school for a prefab. If satisfied that all adequate financial measures are in place, the information is placed on the schools' files, but we do not have the details of the individual contractual arrangements entered into by schools in a way that is readily accessible without going through each school's files. Due to the amount being spent on the capital programme and temporary accommodation, we are considering this matter.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Deputy Quinn can ask a brief, final supplementary question.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I asked a specific question about details the Department has, but the Minister refuses to give them to me. She could have given me a sample of ten. We are trying to consider value for money.

Some €24.5 million is probably not of particular consequence to the Government, but it is an enormous amount to all the schools that the Minister recently told not to proceed with setting out to tender. Whoever is writing the Minister's replies——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy should ask a question.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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——is not letting her answer with information she has.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Some €24.5 million is a substantial amount, but it is small in the context of the €540 million being spent on the capital programme. The Deputy asked what details the Department has regarding the terms of the contract and the rental cost. As I made clear, that information is kept by the individual schools and we do not have it, for example, on a computer database that would make it readily available.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Why not? How does the Department know it is getting value for money?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We check the cost of each case.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister should ignore the heckling.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The schools to which the Deputy referred, the prefab accommodations of which are being put on hold, have been given the go-ahead subject to the tendering process not running out of control.