The state shelled out 60.4 million euros in three years on renting prefabricated buildings for primary and secondary schools across Ireland.

According to Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, who was answering a parliamentary question from Labour TD for Dublin South East Kevin Humphreys, 1,694 prefabs were being leased at the end of March 2011, costing 23.2 million euros, the Journal reports.

At the end of March 2012, 1,490 units were being rented at the cost of 19.7 million euros, falling to 1,273 buildings being leased at the close of March 2013, which set the state back 17.5 million euros.

Deputy Humphreys claimed these prefabs need to be replaced with permanent classrooms to ensure savings are being made.

He was quoted as saying: "In the past, the answer to the booming population was prefabs. Now the answer is to build classrooms. They are a long-term investment."

This comes after Mr Quinn announced details of a Prefab Replacement Initiative in June this year, which is aiming to spend 15 million euros on replacing 115 prefab units in 46 different schools with proper classrooms.

Written by Donal Walsh

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