Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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202. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide details on the number of prefab units purchased out right by her Department from 2020 to date; the total costs involved and the number of such purchases, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22560/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that my Department has broadened its delivery streams and is utilising Modern Methods of Construction, including Modular Accommodation, as well as traditional construction delivery methods. Modular accommodation has particular advantages in terms of overall timelines and also climate impact in that they generally use decarbonised heating sources. In overall terms, it is important to have a range of delivery mechanisms for delivering school accommodation to support the current very strong and ambitious roll out of school building projects. This is particular relevant given the overall challenging construction sector market and the requirement to expedite delivery of required school accommodation.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €5.8 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes new school buildings some of which are being delivered in phases. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.5 billion. In April 2024 the department announced that close to 90 projects, including 28 new school buildings, would be authorised to proceed from tender stage to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025. In total, around €800 million is being invested in these projects under the department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for essential classroom accommodation.Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 600,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate.

This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure.The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

Within the context of a rapidly increasing school population, International Protection children and special education requirements, the Department of Education's priority is to ensure that every child has access to a physical school place. In this regard, it is sometimes necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools. The timing and duration of the accommodation need is a key consideration in determining the value for money afforded from rental relative to purchased modular accommodation. The length of time it is necessary to make use of temporary rented accommodation varies from project to project. The changing landscape in relation to enrolments including that of arriving Ukrainian and International Protection children and increasing special education needs means that accommodation requirements can vary locally and regionally and between short, medium and long-term.In this context, my department has invested over €26 million on the purchase of previously rented modular units since 2020. The vast majority of schools which use rented modular accommodation are already part of the pipeline of projects under the school building programme and their longer-term accommodation will be addressed as part of these projects.

See attached table outlining the number of units purchased by county.

">Purchase of Units per County

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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203. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide details on the number of prefab units rented by her Department from 2020 to date; the total costs involved and the number of such rentals, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22561/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My department's priority is to ensure that every child has access to a physical school place. In this regard, it is sometimes necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools.

The timing and duration of the accommodation need is also considered in determining the optimum accommodation solution – a short-term accommodation requirement does not require a long-term accommodation solution. For example, a school may require a temporary building in circumstances where a major school construction project is planned. Such temporary accommodation is vacated when the major project concerned is completed. The length of time it is necessary to make use of temporary rented accommodation will vary from project to project.

The changing landscape in relation to enrolments including that of arriving Ukrainian children means that accommodation requirements can vary locally and regionally and between short, medium and long-term and this is a relevant factor considered by the Department in determining the type of accommodation solution to be put in place.

Since 2020, over €5.9 billion has been invested in schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,350 school building projects.? Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in the coming months, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 610,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate. The progression and completion of these projects is and will make further inroads on the replacement of rented sites and buildings with knock-on savings on the rental budget. Good progress continues to be made with the roll-out of projects, and the current status of projects being delivered is listed in tabular format, on a county by county basis, on the Department’s website at www.gov.ie and is updated regularly.

I wish to advise the Deputy that the information sought in regard to number of prefab units rented by the Department is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.