Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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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 €100m 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. However, it should be noted that the current school building programme which is underway is a major programme, involving an investment of almost €600m in school buildings. 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.