Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason 790 schools rented prefabs in 2009; the amount that each school spent on the rental of prefabs; the number of these that are currently awaiting approval for some form of school building project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10725/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The overall policy goal of my Department is to ensure the highest standard of permanent accommodation for all schools. However, in the context of a rapidly increasing school population and competing pressure on the capital budget available to my Department, it is necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools.

The policy of my Department on renting prefabricated accommodation in individual cases depends on a number of factors including:

- Whether the school has permanent recognition or is provisionally recognised. Many schools when first established are given provisional recognition and only obtain permanent recognition when they have proved that they are viable.

- If the need is deemed short term, the policy is generally to approve temporary rental of accommodation. For example, a school may require a temporary building while it is awaiting the completion of construction of a permanent building.

- Immediacy of requirement. In some cases, a school needs accommodation at very short notice and this can only be provided through temporary accommodation. In the past, that was provided by means of either rental or purchase of prefabricated buildings or the rental of other temporary accommodation such as local halls. Following an analysis of the break-even point, at which purchase of prefabs becomes a more economical option, the Department now operates a policy of providing schools with the option of purchasing prefabs outright or providing a new build with the funding available where it is expected that the school will require the extra accommodation for more than three years.

During 2009, 222 schools have been approved funding for the purchase of prefabricated classrooms, with the option of building a permanent rooms. 68 of the approved schools have indicated to my Department that they intend purchasing prefabs and 94 intend to use the grant-aid to build a permanent room. The remaining schools have not yet indicated their preference.

These policies will reduce the usage of temporary accommodation and, particularly, the incidence of long term rental of prefabs.

In 2009, expenditure on the rental of temporary accommodation fell significantly to €39m, a saving of €14m over 2008. This is a clear indication of my success in tackling this area of expenditure. Only 20 new rental contracts started in 2009 compared to over 288 in 2008. Furthermore, the number of schools who are renting temporary accommodation has reduced by almost 10% in 2009 and I intend to make further reductions in 2010.

I will forward to the Deputy for his information a list of the 790 schools in question, with details of annual rental costs for temporary prefabricated accommodation.

Most of these schools would have applications for either minor or major capital works. Information on individual school projects on the Capital Building Programme is available on my Department's website at www.education.gov.ie.