'I'll spend EUR617m fixing our schools for the kids, parents and teachers' SHAME OF OUR SCHOOLS.

EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe today writes exclusively for the Irish Daily Mirror, following our probe last weekend into the shambolic state of Irish primary schools.

He admits the Government is needlessly spending millions of euro renting prefabs - a practice he wants to stamp out - and insists he is waging war on dilapidated buildings.

'Last week, an Irish Daily Mirror investigation revealed that many of our schools are still in poor condition.

The Government's school-building plan hasn't touched every classroom and we've been spending far too much renting prefabs.

'But I'm tackling both of these issues - I'm doing it for the kids, for the parents and for the teachers.

This year, the Government will invest EUR614million in the school-building programme.

The announcements I've made so far as Minister on large-scale schoolbuilding projects moving to tender and construction will benefit over 30,000 primary and post-primary students. The target for this year for primary and post-primary schools is 9,475 permanent places in new schools, 3,900 permanent school places in existing schools, and refurbishments that'll benefit more than 2,400 pupils.

In 967 primary and post-primary schools across the country this summer, over 1,180 small and medium-scale building works were undertaken as part of the EUR80million Summer Works Scheme.

I'll shortly announce details of a Summer Works Scheme for next year.

Separately, schools' energy bills are being dramatically cut as a result of a new EUR20million scheme I've introduced to improve roof and cavity wall insulation levels.

But I want to deal with the cost of prefabs. This year, I expect to slash my Department's prefab bill by EUR14million.

Last year, the Department spent EUR53million renting prefabs.

I'm tackling excessive spending on prefabs with a combination of commonsense policy moves and intensive nego-tiations with suppliers. I've allowed schools to use grant aid for the purchase of prefabs to build permanent classrooms instead.

And if a prefab is needed for more than three years the Department will offer a school a grant to buy it.

Suppliers have been told that they must be competitive on rents and that they should cooperate with the Department when it comes to buying out rental contracts.

I expect to have the results of a thorough review of our policy approach to prefabs on my desk before the end of the year, with recommendations for better value for money.

My Department has approved 514 schools to buy prefabs or build classrooms since the start of last year.

Of those, 94 opted to build classrooms rather than to rent. Of the remainder, 224 schools have decided to buy a prefab because they'll need it for more than three years, while 196 have still to decide whether to buy or build.

As well as that, I've published details of the school-building plan on my Department's website - a move that improves transparency and allows projects to be tracked through all stages.

This Government is investing wisely in our school infrastructure.

We'll continue to deliver a programme of investment and reform that's radically transforming classrooms across the country.'

CAPTION(S):

INVESTIGATION The Irish Daily Mirror last Saturday DILAPIDATED A prefab classroom at Belgrove Junior Boys School