Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 436: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the amount which has been spent on the renting, leasing or purchasing of de-mountable temporary accommodation over the past five years; if his Department arranges this through the Department of Finance; the tendering process which is in operation; the frequency in which it is reviewed; the length of time the arrangement lasts; the average period of renting or leasing; the number of units which have been rented and leased over five, eight and ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18379/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As the Deputy will be aware, in many instances provision of this type of accommodation, where required, is arranged for by the Office of Public Works.

In so far as the Irish Prison Service is concerned, I understand that it has been their practise to use temporary accommodation for a wide range of reasons e.g. classrooms, visiting facilities, security, where permanent accommodation is not available, or during construction/maintenance projects. Due to the number of projects involved over the period requested, it would be impossible to supply the information requested in detail without the application of considerable staff resources which could not be justified.

I can however give recent examples of where rental demountable accommodation was used. The first was used in Limerick Prison during the construction of a new cellular/administration block 2000/2003. As the Office of Public Works were managing the project they invited three companies to tender for the construction and hire of a three storey prefab for the purpose of visits and administration accommodation in 2000. The capital cost of fitting out the prefab with all services and removing on completion was €248,583.00. The prefab structure was on hire on a monthly charge from January 2001 to September 2003 at a total cost of €380,893.00.

Currently two prefab structures are being used during major construction works at Portlaoise Prison. The prefabs have been constructed and fitted out as a three storey visitor centre, education facility and a separate staff facility at a cost of €783,254.00 including high security works. These prefabs are currently being leased for a three year period at a total cost of €6,050.00 per month.

Also at Shelton Abbey, Arklow a rental contract has just recently been put in place for the provision of temporary education accommodation at a cost of €6,461.40 per month excluding V.A.T.

I wish to advise the Deputy that all such projects are subject to the normal accounting and procurement procedures of the Civil Service, including expenditure sanction by the Department of Finance as appropriate.

I would also like to point out to the Deputy that I have reversed the unacceptable trend of spiralling overtime costs which has been a feature of our prisons operations for many years. As a result of my determination to tackle this unsustainable dependence on overtime to run our prisons there was a reduction in the overtime bill of some €13.4m in 2004 compared to 2003.