Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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121. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is a minimum floor area that is specified for a classroom; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that some schools are approaching 40 pupils per class and that this situation is exacerbated by a cramped physical environment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39483/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department has produced a suite of technical guidance documents, which are available on my Department's website, to assist design teams in best practice in the design and development of schools in green field site situations. These documents cover all aspects of the development of a building project for both internal and external works. The current practice is to use a guideline of 80 sq. metres as the standard size for a general primary school classroom. This space allows for the inclusion of two en-suite toilets and in room storage. In the case of existing schools and given the limitations of existing buildings, site conditions and funding availability, it is not always possible to achieve the level of accommodation that is provided with a new school design.

The Department's most recently published statistics, for the 2013/14 school year, show an average class size at primary level of 24.8. However, with over 21,100 classes in over 3,100 primary schools throughout the country there will always be variations in class sizes at individual school level. My Department's guidance to local school management is that such variations should be kept to the minimum and to use their autonomy under the staffing schedule to keep classes for infants as low as possible.