Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Active School Flag (ASF) is an initiative of the Department of Education and administered through Mayo Education Centre. It is jointly funded by the Departments of Education and Health (through Healthy Ireland). The aim of the programme is to get ‘more schools, more active, more often’.

The Active School Programme comprises of three different parts:

• Active School Participation Initiatives, such as the #RelaysTakeOver, #ActiveSchoolWeek, #RunAroundEurope etc. These are open to all schools.
• Active School Flag (ASF) primary.
• Active School Flag Post Primary (ASFPP).

The Active School Flag for primary is awarded to schools that can fulfil criteria across 4 areas:

• Physical Education
• Physical Activity
• Partnerships
• Active School Week

Its objectives reflect the physical activity principles embedded in the Healthy Ireland Strategic Action Plan and the National Physical Activity Plan. Once awarded, Active School Flag remains valid for a period of three years. At the end of the academic year 23/24, 609 schools at primary held a current Active School Flag, with 204 flags awarded during the most recent school year.

In 2018, six post-primary schools commenced working with the ASF Team, Department and the University of Limerick to co-design a new whole-school programme, supported by funding from Healthy Ireland. The programme encourages school leaders, teachers, and students to work together to collect data on physical activity levels in the school and to develop a school-specific action plan that focuses on inclusive whole-school physical activity events. The programme at post-primary has been developed with a number of different stages: Try it out; Certificate; and Flag. 46 pilot post primary schools have to date been involved in the process and the pilot was closed to new schools for the current academic year, pending full launch.

Funding from the Department of Education provides core funding to support the payment of salaries, training and travel and subsistence in respect of Active School programme staff, running costs such as web development and admin overheads, the cost of supporting webinars for existing and new schools and the costs of screening and accreditation for new schools. For the development of the new post-primary model, the costs have been supported in the main by the Department of Health and included webinar and mentoring support for those schools involved in the post-primary, as well as research to guide development of the model and additional staffing support. The Department of Health funding also supports the provision of other resources to schools, such as playground vests and outdoor speakers, as well as the development of initiatives such as the highly-successful Active School Week and the recent #RelaysTakeOver.

In 2023, the Department of Education allocated €211,000 to the programme, while Healthy Ireland allocated €360,000. I was delighted that Budget 2024 saw a significant increase in Department of Education programme, to €425,500, alongside continued Department of Health funding. This funding has enabled, among other things, the addition of a full-time seconded teacher post at primary and post-primary, which will help to expand capacity and further drive growth. It has also enabled a review to guide further scaling up of the programme, which is currently underway.

The Deputy will have seen from the Budget 2025 announcement that a further increase for the Department of Education has been mandated, to increase the number of flags awarded and progress from pilot phase to a full roll-out of the post-primary programme. This will bring the total allocation from the Department of Education to support the programme in 2025 to €620,000. The Department of Health funding for next year is not fully confirmed.

Given that it is open to all primary schools to decide to participate, the number of new schools in the programme in any given year is influenced by a combination of factors, both from the schools’ perspective and also the capacity for engagement by the ASF team nationally, the success of different initiatives etc. With the integrated nature of the different aspects of the programme, as outlined above, it is not possible to give a fully itemised ‘cost-per-school’ at either primary or post-primary. It can be confirmed, however, that the budget allocation for 2024/2025 is sufficient to enable considerably more than 10 schools to join the programme at both primary and post-primary, in the year ahead.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the costs in question will vary significantly depending on the specific circumstances.

I have requested my Department to provide information in respect of typical capital costs directly to the Deputy.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Department of Education standard Schedule of Area allocates 100m2 to the External Sensory Garden which is a secure external resource for the school.

The specific design requirements of the sensory garden depend on the type, size, and cohort of pupils attending the school.

Average Cost Range for Sensory Garden based on a New Build green field site, relatively level, free from significant obstructions is €40k - €60k (Incl VAT).

The above average cost will deviate outside the range provided depending on the site specifics and level of preparatory works required to provide the sensory area i.e. a sloping site may require abnormally cost items such as retaining structures to provide the external space which would not be accounted for within the cost range provided.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the costs in question will vary significantly depending on the specific circumstances.

I have requested my Department to provide information in respect of typical capital costs directly to the Deputy.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the costs in question will vary significantly depending on the specific circumstances.

I have requested my Department to provide information in respect of typical capital costs directly to the Deputy.