Vol. 406 No. 4
52 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for Education the proportion of (a) primary pupils, (b) VEC second level pupils and (c) voluntary secondary pupils accommodated in pre-fabricated classrooms; her views on whether these are an acceptable form of accommodation for pupils; the plans she has to phase these units out; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The information requested by the Deputy regarding the proportion of pupils accommodated in prefabricated classrooms is not available.
Prefabricated buildings are intended to meet a short term temporary need and those grant aided or provided by my Department are designed to ensure a satisfactory standard of accommodation for this purpose. The recently agreed Programme for Economic and Social Progress contains a commitment that extra funding will be available from 1992 to 1997 to upgrade or replace all sub-standard buildings at primary and second level. A substantial amount of this will be devoted to the replacement of pre-fabricated facilities which are no longer considered satisfactory.
