Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 283: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount of money spent by her Department on the renting of prefabs in 2005 and to date in 2006; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43004/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Expenditure on the rental of temporary school accommodation is as follows:

2005: €15.7m

2006 — to end of November: €22.1m.

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 provision of rented accommodation provides an immediate solution to a deficit of school accommodation, and is often the only available option where extra accommodation is needed at short notice.

However, 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 devolved initiative was launched in 2003. The purpose of this initiative is to allow schools to undertake a permanent solution to their classroom accommodation needs and to achieve the best value for money. Since the introduction of the devolved initiative over 200 schools have been allocated funding under this scheme.

As can be seen from the table below the spend on temporary accommodation represents a very small fraction of the overall yearly spend on school buildings.