Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware that due to an inability of her Department to provide certainty to the principal and board of management of a school (details supplied) regarding delivery of a modular unit, the school has been unable to proceed with plans to open a much-needed ASD class in time for September 2025, and instead have been forced to postpone until 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3833/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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 for 1 x Mainstream classroom modular and the school authority has subsequently requested that this modular be changed to provide 1 x Special education needs classroom.

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 schools 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.

The Department’s Modular Accommodation Programme is an important mechanism for facilitating accelerated delivery of necessary additional capacity – including in relation to special classes. However, as part of maximising existing capacity and managing within budgetary parameters this is targeted at schools where there is no existing capacity in the general area to facilitate the establishment of urgently required special classes.

A key focus of the Department is the utilisation of existing accommodation at schools to provide facilities for special classes. This approach supports accelerated delivery of the accommodation and provision which is well integrated within the mainstream school accommodation. It is consistent with the Department’s commitment to supporting the educational needs of children who require specialist placements while at the same time meeting the requirements of the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines.

In general, demographics have been falling at primary level and are due to continue to decrease. Therefore the Department considers it prudent to maximise the use of existing spare accommodation capacity at primary level in the first instance, before considering any applications for further accommodation needs. This is in line with public spending requirements. In relation to the provision of primary special classes, the shared preference of both the Department and the NCSE is to use and reconfigure existing school accommodation to provide special classes.

In planning for school place requirements and ensuring best use of limited resources, it is very important that capacity in existing schools and across a town or area is maximised to the greatest extent possible. This analysis is done as part of the Department’s assessment of applications for additional accommodation from individual schools.

Officials in my Department will be in contact with the school the school authority directly regarding the ASA application.