Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 270: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a school (details supplied) has only got temporary accommodation; if she will make immediate arrangements to give the school permanent recognition and to support the school in finding a permanent location which can be procured with her Department's financial support in order that the school can meet the demand for enrolment and can continue to provide its services for children with special needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8975/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers commenced operation in September 2002 with provisional recognition from the Department on the basis that it would be providing multi-denominational education in the Clontarf/Marino/Fairview area of Dublin.

It is a condition of recognition that the Patron must provide suitable accommodation in the stated area which must be capable of meeting the growing needs of the school. Accommodation remains the Patron's responsibility until the Department is in a position to provide permanent accommodation, assuming the school achieves permanent recognition.

In this case, the promoters were unable to find suitable accommodation in the area that it had intended to serve. Instead, it set itself up, as a temporary measure, in a vacated school building in Dublin 9, an area already providing multi-denominational education by two other schools.

Normally, ahead of making new provision of a similar type in an area, the Department, as a matter of policy, seeks to maximise existing provision to reduce the burden on the State of resourcing a proliferation of small schools. In the context of the extent of multi-denominational provision in the area concerned, it is incumbent on the Department to strategically examine this provision to determine long term requirements and how these should best be addressed. The Department is carrying out this assessment which will be completed as quickly as possible.