Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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157. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made by her Department towards the elimination of rented prefabricated classrooms; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37307/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that as part of my Department's large scale school building programme, prefab accommodation continues to be replaced with modern, high quality permanent accommodation on an on-going basis as part of major building projects in schools. In addition, since July 2008, schools allocated devolved funding for the provision of additional classroom accommodation must utilise this funding to construct a permanent structure where the need for the accommodation is long term, typically for a period in excess of three years.

The Deputy will also be aware that under my Department's Prefab Replacement Initiatives announced in 2012 and 2013, approval was given to 216 schools to replace 614 prefab units with permanent accommodation. Replacing prefabs is part of the Government's €475 million education infrastructure plan for 2014. This has reduced the reliance on rented prefabs in schools.

As the Deputy will appreciate, the overall policy goal of my Department is to ensure the highest standard of permanent accommodation for all schools. In the context of a rapidly increasing school population, my Department's priority is to ensure that every child will have access to a physical school place and in this regard, it is sometimes necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools. In that regard, it is not possible to indicate when it will be possible to replace all rented prefabs in schools as the delivery of major school projects required to meet demographic demand will be the main focus for capital investment in the coming years.