Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

——but they will fill up over the next couple of years. It means that there is a particular draw on our budget this year because we are spending so much in those developing areas. At the same time we are aiming to progress the projects in other areas. In recent years, thousands of schools outside of developing areas have benefited from projects under the summer works and small schools schemes in recent years. Many more will benefit from improvement works under the main programme and various devolved schemes in the years ahead. It is also important to point out that all primary schools get an annual minor works grant which can be used at their discretion to carry out small-scale works.

In November 2006, the Government increased funding for the minor works grant by 44% on the previous year. Around €27 million was paid out to primary schools throughout the country late last year to enable thousands of small-scale works to be completed without the need to interact with the Department. Individual primary schools received a grant in the sum of €5,500 plus €18.50 per pupil.

The question of the provision of prefabricated accommodation has been raised on a number of occasions recently and again here this evening. Senators will be aware that demand for additional accommodation in schools has increased significantly in recent 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, such as language teachers teaching English as an additional language, to schools in recent years, the Government could have decided to make children wait until permanent accommodation could be provided. However, we prioritised putting the extra teachers into schools as soon as possible. This was the right decision. Against this background, my Department has nonetheless managed to keep expenditure on temporary accommodation low.