Renting school prefabs in one county costs €3m
Although the figure is down from a bill of almost €4m for city and county schools in 2009, the Labour Party’s Sean Sherlock said the Department of Education could use its money better to provide permanent classroom buildings.
The average cost of €12,711 for each of 236 units in primary and second level schools is more than €1,000 less than last year, when 282 prefab units were being used on the grounds of 110 Cork schools.
According to information provided to Mr Sherlock by Education Minister Mary Coughlan in reply to a parliamentary question, the department approved the rental of seven prefabs in Cork so far this year and has ended rental contracts in respect of five units.
The Cork East TD said, although the spending and average costs have fallen since last year, the money could still be better spent employing local labour.
“This €3m a year could create a lot of jobs, I know one school where they are trying to use money they get to rent prefabs and convert it to bricks and mortar. They came up with an imaginative plan to do so, but the Department of Education still haven’t approved it,” he said. “They’re clearly not looking at any proposals from schools or imaginative proposals that would offset cost of rent against bricks and mortar, despite promises to do so. I haven’t seen any evidence of that in any of the schools I’ve dealt with in my constituency.”
Figures published in the Irish Examiner in February last year showed that the school with the highest number of rented prefabs in Cork was Gaelscoil Chloch na gCoillte in Clonakilty. But the 16 rented prefabs were vacated a year ago when a new bank premises in the town became available as a temporary home.
At Scoil Bríde in Rathcormac, where eight prefabs were being rented last year, an application for a new 12-classroom school on an adjoining site was lodged by the Department of Education in May.
Cork County Council, meanwhile, is awaiting further information in relation to the plan, but the department has said funding is in place for work to proceed once the planning process is finalised.
