SCHOOLS are paying three times more to rent prefabs than it would cost to build proper accommodation, teachers said yesterday.

Schools spend huge sums of 'dead money' on prefabs

SCHOOLS are paying three times more to rent prefabs than it would cost to build proper accommodation, teachers said yesterday.

Primary teachers gave examples of vast amounts of money being spent to pay for temporary accommodation for over 25 years. Helen O'Gorman, principal of the 240-pupil St Mary's National School, Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, said that '1.25m had been paid out renting prefabs at her school.

But it would cost just '3m to provide a new 16-teacher classroom, she told colleagues at the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) conference.

The school is preparing a mortgage …