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Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

€60.4 million spent on renting prefabs as classrooms over three years

A prefab costs around €13,500 to rent a year.

RENTING PREFABS FOR primary and secondary schools cost the State €60.4 million over a three year period.

Following a parliamentary question from Labour TD for Dublin South East Kevin Humphreys, the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn disclosed the number of prefabs being used in primary and secondary schools throughout the country.

There were 1,694 prefabricated units being rented at the end of March 2011 at a cost of €23.2 million in primary and post-primary schools. This number fell to 1,490 units being rented at the end of March 2012 at a cost of €19.7 million and 1,273 units being rented at end of March 2013 at a cost of €17.5 million.

That means, on average, a prefab costs around €13,500 a year to rent.

Although the cost of building a classroom varies from site to site, so far the construction of 55 classrooms has saved €1 million for the state.

Under the Department of Education’s 2012 Prefab Replacement Initiative, approval was given to 170 schools nationally to replace 458 prefab units with permanent accommodation. Around €42 million was allocated for this initiative of which €27.2 million has been paid to date.

Of these a total of 142 projects have gone to construction and 55 of these have been completed saving the state in the region of €1 million so far. The initiative will result in savings of around €5 million per year on the rental of prefabs in the coming years.

In June, Quinn announced a further Prefab Replacement Initiative to replace 115 prefabs in 46 schools with permanent accommodation. A total of €15 million was allocated and this further initiative will result in additional rental savings of €2.5 million per annum.

Quinn added that replacing prefabs is part of the government’s €475 million education infrastructure plan for 2014, which will provide “modern, high quality accommodation for pupils and teachers and construction related jobs for workers around the country”.

Deputy Humphreys told TheJournal.ie that replacing these prefabs with permanent classrooms is needed to ensure savings are being made.

“In the past the answer to the booming population was prefabs. Now the answer is to build classrooms. They are a long-term investment”.

Read: State Pathologists could move from portacabins into vacant garda station>

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27 Comments
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    Mute Nyal Maku
    Favourite Nyal Maku
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    Nov 15th 2015, 10:40 AM

    This woman is a design icon and a national treasure, she produced a vast body of work across many design disciplines. The exhibition dedicated to her in the museum in Collins barracks is really worth viewing (it’s free too!).

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    Mute Mick Torrans
    Favourite Mick Torrans
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    Nov 15th 2015, 10:46 AM

    Acknowledgement of her contribution to modernism, and design in general, is long over due but at least it has begun after decades. Fair play to Dr.Goff for all her work. My own LEGO tribute to E1027 sits proudly above the fireplace! https://instagram.com/p/60lMUOTHxg/

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    Mute Coles
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:29 PM

    What? You’ve obviously just heard about her. Her work has been celebrated for generations.

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    Mute Inanimate Carbon Rod
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    Nov 15th 2015, 12:03 PM

    Love Eileen Grey, she was 50 years ahead of her time. Some day I wanna buy one of her Bibbendum chairs, they look really comfy

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    Mute Jonathan Eastwood
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    Nov 15th 2015, 1:56 PM

    I seem to remember reading an article about one of her chairs selling for millions at auction. So obviously her work is still very relevant and beautiful to many people.

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Nov 15th 2015, 11:08 AM

    Dated arts-rubbish from a bye-gone age.
    There is a reason the arts cult of modernism is forgotten.
    It was boring rubbish.
    That tiger skin on the floor was supposed to be Chic.
    Nobody would design such horrible houses or interiors like that nowadays.
    (Dublin developers and designers just might do though.)

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    Mute Alesis
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    Nov 15th 2015, 2:24 PM

    Art deco stuff is still sought after. That chair above looks totally useless, but that’s often the point. betcha someone would pay a pretty penny for it.

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    Mute Anton Dec
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:52 PM

    You’re a silly little person aren’t you?

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Nov 15th 2015, 2:30 PM

    Because… She was a woman?

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    Mute Anthony Halpin
    Favourite Anthony Halpin
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    Nov 16th 2015, 2:26 PM

    Ireland has a long tradition of ignoring it’s own talent, an inferiority complex borne of ignorance which continues to this day. Both AIB and Aer Lingus went outside of Ireland for the design of their logos. If you want money from the Arts Council, a non – Irish sounding name is a huge advantage (along with no talent, most of the time) This in a country which has a rich artistic heritage going back thousands of years (Book of Kells / Durrow etc.)

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