The cost of using 95 prefabs classrooms rented for at least ten years by schools last year was over €1 million according to figures released by Fine Gael today.
The party’s education spokesman Brian Hayes said the prefabs are being used in 59 schools nationwide at a cost of €1,174,785 to the taxpayer in 2009 alone.
Mr Hayes said the Department of Education told him in response to a series of parliamentary questions that it spends an average of €12,000 per annum renting each prefab.
He said: “This means that, in the majority of cases, over €120,000 has been spent by the Department of Education to date in renting out just one prefab for a school over the past ten years.
“In virtually all of these cases, the State could have built at least one or two classrooms for the money it spent renting out temporary accommodation over the period.
“It is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and a terrible indictment of how Fianna Fáil treats schools and their building needs.”
Mr Hayes called on the Department to set a limit on the waiting time for capital needs for schools. He also said they should renegotiate the contracts for prefabs as rents have fallen.
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