John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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535.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to investigate the lack of facilities and resources at a school (details supplied) where a wonderful staff is doing their absolute best, however the lack of facilities and resources do not meet with health and safety standards and are not appropriate to meet the needs of the curriculum; and if her officials will liaise with the school to help improve the situation and deliver the facilities and resources that are appropriate to these children.[34298/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is not in receipt of a current application from the school in question under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme.

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.

It is open to the school authority to make an application for additional accommodation through the 'Additional School Accommodation scheme (ASA)' which is available atgov.ie/en/service/563cae-additional-accommodation-scheme

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has a statutory function to plan and co-ordinate the provision of education and support services to children with special educational needs, in consultation with the relevant education partners and the Health Service Executive (HSE). This includes the establishment of special class and special school placements in various geographical areas where there is an identified need.

My Department works closely with the NCSE to plan for special school capacity requirements across the country.