Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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656.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if correspondence (details supplied) will be reviewed; the current position; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31575/24]

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 capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme from the school 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 or at other school’s in the area.

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 National Council for Special Education (NCSE), and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes. The capacity at other schools in the area is also considered as part of the assessment of any accommodation needs.

I am pleased to confirm to the Deputy that provisional approval for a traditional building project for 2x Special Education Tuition rooms was recently granted to the school to replace a prefabricated structure at the school. The application also included a request for a space for hot meals provision. This accommodation request does not fall within the remit of the ASA scheme and this request was refused. The school authority was notified of this decision.

The School Meals Programme falls under the remit of the Department of Social Protection.

The main focus of the Department’s capital funding over the last decade and for the coming period is on provision of critical additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics and children with special education needs.

The Department is required to manage the overall school building programme so that we target and prioritise areas that are under greatest pressure for additional school places. This reflects the Department’s fundamental objective of ensuring the availability of a school place for every child.