Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 1784: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary schools whose buildings consist entirely of prefabricated buildings; the statistics on a county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31185/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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With the recent rapid increase in the school going population, a large number of new schools have been established in recent years, under the process for the recognition of new schools conducted by the New Schools Advisory Committee. It is the general practice of my Department not to provide permanent accommodation for schools which have only received temporary recognition. When the school receives permanent recognition, it is then open to the school to apply for funding for permanent accommodation. In the meantime, some new schools are accommodated in prefabricated buildings, while others rent permanent premises.

The information sought by the Deputy is not held by my Department in a readily-accessible format. However, the investment of almost €4.5 billion under the current National Development Plan is increasing the number of permanent school places across the country. This investment in schools includes the completion of construction work during the course of 2008 on 67 large scale building projects, the opening of 26 new school buildings in rapidly developing areas and the progression of 374 devolved projects under the Permanent Accommodation and Small Schools Schemes.

This level of activity under the school building programme builds on the significant achievements under the last National Development Plan when over 7,800 building projects were delivered to provide new and modernised educational infrastructure. The Permanent Accommodation Scheme was introduced in 2003 to reduce the need for prefabs. It was designed to give value for money in terms of providing permanent accommodation in place of prefabs, where an accommodation need was likely to exist for a considerable length of time. Since its introduction, over €100 million has been allocated to schools under the scheme and it has resulted in the provision of an additional 625 classrooms and 275 resource rooms in schools around the country. This is in addition to those classrooms provided under the major capital projects managed by my Department.

Had the Permanent Accommodation Scheme not been in place, a very significant proportion of those classrooms and resource rooms would have had to be provided using temporary accommodation such as prefabricated classrooms. Despite this, it will continue to be necessary for prefabricated accommodation to be provided because competing priorities mean that it will not always be possible to have a permanent accommodation solution in place in a short time-frame. My Department will continue to provide funding for such prefabricated accommodation and the decision on whether to rent or purchase will depend on the likely length of time it will be required. In all cases, the approach will be to ensure best value for money.