Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 468: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount of funding that has been spent on the provision of prefab buildings in each county per year between 1995 and 2006; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23469/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am providing the Deputy with the total expenditure incurred by my Department on both the purchase and rental of temporary accommodation for primary and post primary schools nationally since 1998. It is not possible to readily provide this information for years prior to 1998; or to provide the information in the format that the Deputy has requested.

Nationally, between 1998 and the end of 2005, a total of €88.997m has been expended on the purchase of temporary accommodation for primary and post primary schools. 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. This represents less than 5% of the total expenditure on school buildings (€2.101billion) between 2000 and 2005. In the period since 1998 to the end of 2005, my Department spent €58.55 million on renting temporary accommodation for primary and post primary schools. This represents less than 3% of the total expenditure on school buildings between 2000 and 2005.

The demand for additional accommodation in schools has risen significantly over the last number of 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 through 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. In order to reduce the amount of temporary accommodation at primary level a new 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.

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.