Soaring rental costs for school prefabs hit €35m
Moville National School principal Gerard McGeehan points out two of the blocks of unused prefab classrooms.
Related Articles
Thursday January 31 2008
THE Government forked out more than €35m renting temporary prefab structures for schools last year.
Figures obtained by the Irish Independent show that €35.5m was spent on renting temporary accommodation for schools last year -- a nine-fold increase since 2000.
The massive increase in spending is almost half what was spent between 2000 and 2006. Over those six years almost €80m was spent, compared to the mere €4m spent on prefab rental in 2000.
However, since 2003 the Department of Education has chosen to rent rather than purchase prefab structures.
Fine Gael last night described the spending as "a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money".
Education spokesman Brian Hayes called for a full inquiry into the Department of Education's failure to plan for permanent school buildings.
"It's an absolute disgrace that the department has failed to strategically plan for permanent schools. While visiting schools in recent months I've seen countless examples of temporary prefabs. It's just not good enough," he said.
"Everything seems to be on hold at the moment. The minister has said she will soon make an announcement on how she plans to spend the €600m for capital works. But it seems they have run out of money and we won't see any new additional projects."
Following last December's Budget, Education Minister Mary Hanafin admitted plans to reduce pupil/teacher ratio this year would not now be realised and blamed the worsening economic situation. It has prompted fears that the prefabs will remain for some time.
The department needed €9.1bn this year to run the education sector without any additional projects or improvements. Just €9.3bn was provided for in the Budget, making the prospect of building a significant number of new school buildings unlikely.
With almost half of the extra money ring-fenced for new primary schools in developing areas, schools in traditional areas will struggle to have their prefabs replaced with permanent accommodation.
"The Budget plans to focus on developing areas undergoing massive population increases, meaning that schools in outline areas will be put to the bottom of the queue," Mr Hayes added.
Failure
Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) general secretary John Carr said the proliferation of prefabs outside primary schools were "blots on the landscape and showed the Government's failure to respond effectively to schools' needs".
He claimed more and more prefabs were being erected instead of building extensions or providing permanent new school buildings.
"This is bad value for money and in the long term bad accommodation for children and teachers," he said. Department of Education figures reveal the total capital expenditure at primary and post-primary level was €645m last year. The expenditure on renting temporary accommodation was €35.55m, representing 5.5pc of the overall capital expenditure.
A spokeswoman said the bulk of the €35.55m bill would have been spent on renting prefabs.
"It is necessary to provide a short-term solution to an increased enrolment, while awaiting a more permanent solution," she said.
"The minister is shortly expected to outline the progression of projects under the school building programme which will see almost €600m being spent, this year alone, upgrading facilities and building new schools in developing areas."
- Aine Kerr Political Correspondent
