Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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927. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason that an application made by a school (details supplied) for a new staffroom was refused given that the current staffroom is miniscule in size and incapable of accommodating all staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20655/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the school in question was approved funding in 2020 under the Additional Schools Accommodation Scheme (ASA).   The project is devolved to the school authority for delivery which includes one mainstream classroom and one Special Education Teaching room.  The project stage report submitted to the Department included a number of unapproved works and the school has been requested to submit a revised report. 

The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation. At primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for a school’s accommodation requirements where an additional teaching post has been sanctioned by Teacher Allocation Section, or the requirement for a new class for pupils with special education needs has been identified by the NCSE, and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.

The main focus of resources over the last decade and for the coming period is on provision of additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics. The latter stages of the National Development Plan will see an increasing focus on the upgrade and refurbishment of the existing school stock. Decisions on ASA applications are made in this context.