Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount being spent on prefabricated buildings in the education sector since 2000; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27575/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In the five years since 2000 my Department has spent €39.2 million on the rental of temporary school accommodation, mainly in primary schools. In addition, my Department spent €73.5 million over the same period, on the purchase of prefabricated buildings in the primary and post-primary sectors.

This expenditure was for the supply and installation of 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, represents less than 5% of the total expenditure on school buildings —€1.6 billion — over the five year period from 2000 to the end of 2004.

The 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 the demands to cater for diversity rough the recognition of new Gaelscoileanna and Educate Together schools.

The current focus within my Department is to empower schools to resolve their accommodation needs, wherever possible by way of permanent accommodation. To reduce the amount of temporary accommodation at primary level an initiative was launched in 2003. The purpose of this initiative 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 that pilot initiative was very positive and the initiative was expanded to 44 primary schools in 2004 and more than 70 schools were invited to participate in this initiative in 2005.

As a result of this initiative the amount spent on the purchase of prefabricated buildings in 2004 was just half of what had been spent in 2003.

Applications for funding through this initiative, during 2006, are currently being received in my Department. The closing date for receipt of these applications is next Friday, 14 October.