Pupils face school life in prefabs, claims ASTI
The warning from the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) came after Education Minister Mary Hanafin admitted the Government had spent €73.5 million on prefabs in just five years.
ASTI president Susie Hall said it was “appalling” that thousands of students risked spending their entire academic lives in the temporary structures.
“Prefabs are never a satisfactory solution. It always amazes me that we use the highest quality bricks and mortar for commercial institutions in this country, but we allow prefabs to be used in schools. It’s just not good enough.”
Ms Hall stressed that she was not blaming Ms Hanafin personally.
The logistical implications of dealing with the student accommodation issue as the school-going population grew in the years ahead would be more than a single department could deal with, she said.
The Central Statistics Office last year predicted the annual number of births would continue to grow up to 2011, meaning a substantial increase in the school-going population.
“We need an emergency response from the Government as a whole for the next five or six years in terms of investment for schools,” Ms Hall said.
Earlier, in the Dáil, the Education Minister had defended the €73.5m outlay on prefabs in the period from 2000 to 2004.
“This expenditure represents less than 5% of the total expenditure on school buildings between 2000 and 2004,” Ms Hanafin said.
The demand for school accommodation had “risen significantly” over the last number of years, she added, hence the need for prefabs.
“A number of them have a very long life span and are of very good quality. In many instances, one would not recognise that the new ones are not a permanent solution.”
But that argument was dismissed by Fine Gael education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright, who had raised the matter.
Spending €73.5 million on the prefabs was “bad value for money”, she said.
