Renting of school buildings under fire

PARENTS want the State spending watchdog to examine the annual €8.4m cost of renting school buildings which they believe would be better spent on new facilities.

The lobby group Tuismitheoirí le Chéile (TLC) was set up after the School Buildings Programme was announced by Education Minister Noel Dempsey in January.

Figures from the Department of Education show that rented buildings and prefabs account for €8.4m of its annual spend. This amount was spent last year in almost half the country’s 3,200 primary schools, hundreds of which are dilapidated or in serious disrepair because of poor investment. A further €17m was spent on temporary accommodation for 230 primary schools, of which half was used to install prefabs rather than new buildings.

TLC is going to write to the Comptroller and Auditor General to ask him to examine the situation.

“Some schools have been in rented facilities for eight years which is a huge drain on resources that could be used to build proper classrooms,” said TLC spokesperson Florence Horsman-Hogan. “We will be asking the Comptroller and Auditor General to look at education spending and if he approves of the disproportionate amount being spent on rented buildings.” She said it was ridiculous that a house could be built in six months for around €200,000 but it could take six years and €600,000 to build a two-classroom extension.

The €343m School Building Programme for primary and second level was announced by Mr Dempsey in January. It included a pilot project aimed at devolving responsibility for the planning and construction phases of improvement works to school authorities.

A Department of Education spokesperson said their regional offices which are being opened later this year will have an input into planning of new schools.

“The reason prefabs are used so much is to meet the short-term accommodation needs of schools, especially in cases where they urgently need extra space,” she said.