School Prefab Rental Fees Revealed

Sinn Féin local election candidate in East Meath Sinéad Burke has revealed that one school in East Meath has spent over €295,000 on rental fees for prefab accommodation over the past ten years, while it waits for capital funding.

Ms. Burke said, “In response to a parliamentary question by my colleague Caoimhín O'Caoláin, the Minister for Education indicated that Realt na Mara National School in Donacarney has spent €297,524 over the past ten years on prefab rent fees, and it's current annual bill is in excess of €40,000.

"This figure for East Meath is just the tip of the iceberg as, amazingly, the Minister was unable to provide figures for the total cost of prefab rental on a county by county basis. The figures received by Sinn Féin relate only to those schools renting four or more prefabs. Of the 74 schools in this category, over €6.5million is being spent annually across 18 counties, with over €578,000 being spent annually by seven schools in Co. Meath.

“This is an obscene amount of money for the Government to be wasting on substandard accommodation for our children. This money and other moneys should be invested in permanent quality school buildings. How else are we to build the so called knowledge economy that the Government so often talks about? “These figures are an indictment on the record of successive Fianna Fáil-led Governments who have failed to invest properly in our children’s education even in the years of the economic boom.

“At this time of record unemployment levels Sinn Féin has called on the Government to invest in labour intensive public infrastructure projects to boost employment in the construction sector and to put in place the infrastructure required to sustain our economy in the medium to long term. This should include the fast-tracking of the school building programme to bring about an end to the use of prefab accommodation for our children.

“Our proposals would see all 74 schools that are currently a stage 3 tender stage proceed to construction immediately with a target of 50% of the 86 schools at design stage proceeding to construction by the end of 2009. We would also ensure that a minimum of 150 school building projects enter the architectural and planning stages each year to ensure we meet the projected demand for school places over the coming years.”