Prefab funding used to build classrooms
The initiative, announced last July by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, has resulted in the provision of nearly 80 classrooms, rather than prefabs which would have been bought with the same money.
The 59 schools had been approved for grant aid to purchase temporary accommodation, but chose instead to build permanent classrooms. As well as mainstream classes, the rooms being built also include a number of units for resource teaching with smaller groups or for teaching children in autistic units attached to some primary schools.
Mr O’Keeffe yesterday saw progress on one such project in his own Cork North-West constituency at Millstreet Convent National School, whose principal Joan O’Mahony he claims gave him the idea to back the initiative. She proposed last summer to use €240,000 made available for prefabs to build two new classrooms, which will be ready at the end of the school holidays in September.
“The parish had already donated a site to the school so there were no site acquisition costs involved. The school’s proposal made sense to me so I decided to make the option available to other schools around the country.
“It’s an example of how common sense solutions and lateral thinking can make an enormous difference in the lives of those involved in Irish education,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
Another Department of Education initiative has allowed schools which need temporary accommodation for at least three years to buy prefabs rather than renting them in an effort to reduce costs. Mr O’Keeffe is awaiting the outcome of a review by consultants into the costs associated with prefabs.
His officials have also begun negotiations with suppliers to reduce those rents where it remains necessary to rent rather than buy prefabs.
Last year, the Department of Education paid out €53 million in rent on prefabricated classrooms and another €32m was spent on renting them.
About €615m will be spent on the school building programme this year, up from €580m last year.
“The Opposition parties like to misrepresent the facts on the issue of temporary accommodation, but let’s remember that when Fine Gael and Labour were last in Government, they were spending seven times less on school buildings than we are today,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
