Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount expended on modular classrooms, prefabricated units or both to meet additional classroom space in the past ten years; the amount allocated to provide same in the 2019-20 school year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18918/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should be aware that prior to 2013, separate information on the rental of prefabs, buildings and land was not compiled by my Department.  I can confirm that the total expenditure for rented accommodation from 2013 to 2018 was €85,762,955.12.

The total amount allocated for rented accommodation in 2019 is €19 million.  

In terms of progress being made on replacing temporary accommodation, construction work on large-scale and devolved projects in 2018 and 2019 is expected to facilitate the replacement of over 600 prefabs.  This reflects the priority being placed on this as part of the roll-out of Project Ireland 2040.

In addition, since mid-2018 all schools approved for additional accommodation under my Department's Additional School Accommodation Scheme are also having necessary prefabs replaced as part of their additional accommodation project. To date approval has been granted to replace in excess of 128 prefabs with permanent accommodation and this number will continue to increase as further additional accommodation projects are approved.