Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 337: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the breakdown of the amount spent per school in the provision and maintenance of prefabs in Cork city and county including a breakdown of the amount spent in the north and east Cork areas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15274/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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While comprehensive information is held on individual school files, my Department does not yet have these details available in a format that provides readily accessible cumulative information on the overall position regarding temporary accommodation. However, this issue is being addressed as a matter of urgency and work on compiling a comprehensive database of such information is well advanced. This work is part of a general review of rental policy being undertaken. Information is being collated on approximately 900 schools which have received approval from the Department for temporary accommodation, including but not limited to prefabs. This will be used to produce a database of information which will be maintained on an ongoing basis and will inform my Department's future decision-making in this area. I anticipate this work will be completed shortly.

The Deputy will be aware that demand for additional accommodation in schools has risen significantly over the last number of 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 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. Against this background, my Department has nonetheless managed to keep expenditure on temporary accommodation low. When the rental and purchase of temporary accommodation is taken together, it still only comes to 6.2% of overall investment in school buildings last year.