Politics

School places: More than €280m spent on buying modular units for schools in 2023, PAC hears

Department defends practice as sum for leasing and buying prefabs described by TD as ‘eye-watering’

Pupils at Gaelscoil na Camóige in Clondalkin, Dublin, which has been obliged to use prefabs for 30 years. Photograph: Laura Hutton

Cormac McQuinn
Thu May 16 2024 - 18:46

Almost €282 million was spent on purchasing modular buildings for schools last year, the Dáil’s public spending watchdog has been told.

Department of Education secretary general Bernie McNally was questioned about spending on the rental and purchase of prefabs or modular units for schools during an appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). She rejected an accusation that planning for schools had failed.

Ms McNally said temporary accommodation was sometimes necessary in response to population growth as well as for other reasons. Some €29 million was spent on renting modular units in 2021, this increased to €41 million in 2022 and came in at €43 million last year.

In 2021, Ms McNally said, there were 396 schools with rented prefabs for more than five years and this number had fallen to 219 as of last month. She said the spend on modular units last year was €281.9 million.

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Ms McNally said it is “encouraged internationally that we use modern methods of construction”. She said “there is value for money, there’s also climate benefits” and that much of the modular accommodation is “permanent”.

Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin later called the sum spent on leasing and purchasing prefabs “eye-watering” as he suggested the department could develop permanent buildings.

Department of Education official Hubert Loftus said rentals represented 4 per cent of the department’s capital programme “so it’s a small element”.

He said the purchasing of modular units is an “important delivery mechanism”, that Government policy is to add capacity to the modern methods of the construction sector and the department’s framework provides “very climate-friendly solutions, including timber frame modular solutions that we’re very proud of”.

[ Three out of four parents unable to secure spots at oversubscribed secondary schools ]

[ Where are the most oversubscribed secondary schools in Ireland? ]

Earlier, Sinn Féin TD John Brady raised issues around pressure to find secondary school places. He argued that there has been a “very poor forward planning process” and said this has been evident in his Wicklow constituency.

Ms McNally said: “I absolutely acknowledge that there are families around the country that have concerns.”

However, she said the State is divided up into 314 school planning areas and “typically” there is a problem in about 10 of these every year. “We have nearly one million children and young people in schools and the vast majority of those get a place and there isn’t a problem.”

Mr Brady argued that planning has “fundamentally failed” and he read out a letter he received from a boy in sixth class whose friends have received a secondary school place but he has not yet had one confirmed.

Ms McNally said she empathised with the boy in question but that the system is “working overall”.

“We are working really hard. Ideally we’d like to have every single young person sorted out much earlier in the year,” she said, adding that the department believed this would happen in the next few weeks.

Ms McNally said she respectfully disagreed with Mr Brady when he said there is a “cyclical failure by the department” to deal with the issue of school places.

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times

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