Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers, has been approved a project under my Department’s Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme to provide a 2 classroom SEN base.

The project has been devolved for delivery to the school authority and it is their responsibility to appoint a design team and to progress the project.

I can confirm that as part of the school’s permanent accommodation project the school were approved temporary accommodation in February 2022 in the form of a modular unit to facilitate the opening of a special class.

In addition, I can confirm that my Department recently received an application from the school in question to increase their temporary accommodation provision. This application is currently being assessed.

The purpose of the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream, special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation. Our focus is on the most critical needs for the next school year.

In the context of making most effective use of our capital allocation, and mindful of climate action goals, we are working to make sure that all school accommodation capacity is being maximised. We are looking at how each individual school’s accommodation can be best utilised and at capacity across schools in each area. The schools application is being considered in this context and a decision will be communicated to the school as soon as possible.