Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1008. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the provision of a new school (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40425/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department is in receipt of an application from the school in question for major capital works comprising of a new school building.

Under the National Development Plan (NDP), increased funding has been provided for the school sector capital investment programme. This funding allows for a continued focus on the provision of new permanent school places to keep pace with demographic demand and also provides for an additional focus on the refurbishment of existing school buildings.

Currently my Department has a significant existing pipeline of projects to be delivered over the coming years to meet capacity needs managed under the Large-Scale Capital Programme (LSCP) and the Additional School Accommodation Scheme (ASA). This includes circa 1,200 school building projects across the various stages of planning, design, tender and construction. The application from the school in question will be considered in due course.

Should the school authority consider that it does not have sufficient capacity, in terms of mainstream teaching accommodation, it is open to them to apply for accommodation under the Additional School Accommodation Scheme, details of which are available on my Department's website www.education.ie. The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1009. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the provision of a new school (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40426/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the Department will be devolving the delivery of the project for the school to which he refers to the Joint Managerial Body (JMB).

The next step in that respect, is for the JMB to enter into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Department. Once this is in place, the JMB will then proceed with the appointment of a design team to progress the project through design, planning and construction in due course.

As the project has not yet commenced architectural planning, it is too early in the process to provide a timeline for completion of the works.