Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application for the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question.

The purpose of my Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and 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. Where there is a need for accelerated delivery of such accommodation my Department utilises Modern Methods of Construction, including my Department's Modular Accommodation Framework, to meet the accommodation need. My Department has additionally put Project Management provision in place to support schools in the expedited delivery of this accommodation.

I am pleased to confirm that the school has accepted a significant proposed brief of accommodation under the ASA scheme and a Project Manager has been appointed to progress this project at the school. My Department is currently engaging with the school in relation to contingency options which are required for the project to be delivered. My officials remain available to the school authorities in relation to this matter.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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320. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the additional accommodation application by a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10642/24]

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.