James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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228. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question 181 on 7 February 2024, if she will outline a definite date for the completion of the feasibility study; the plans for the school's expansion of accommodation for the 2024/25 school year, especially when children of refugee families will be attending the school in question; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9187/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school project referred to by the Deputy in their previous Parliamentary Question outlined above is at an early design phase of their Additional School Accommodation project with a Stage 1 report submitted to my Department, which is under review.

As the project is at an early stage, it is not possible to give a definitive timeline for completion of this review.

Once this review has been completed, we will contact the school authorities directly on how to progress their project through the next stages of the project.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department has recently received an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school authority in question.

The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (or 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 application is currently being assessed by my officials. Once the application has been assessed, the school authority will be contacted directly with a decision.