Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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328. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the Government is currently renting the building at St. Anne’s Special School, located on the Sean Ross Abbey site, from the same religious order that ran the mother and baby home; if so, the amount of rent that has been paid annually; and the reason the Government is paying rent to an organisation that profited from child trafficking and illegal adoptions instead of holding the organisation accountable. [5612/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy, that my Department has no current record of renting a building for the school in question from a religious order or organisation to which the Deputy refers.

The school in question is a co-educational special school for pupils between the ages of 4 and 18 located in Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary. The school is under the patronage of the Bishop of Killaloe.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the school was approved for additional accommodation under the Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme for four Special education classrooms including specialist teaching, therapy and support rooms. This project is currently at stage 2b. The school also has rented accommodation onsite in the form of modular accommodation.

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.

Within the context of a rapidly increasing school population, the Department of Education's priority is to ensure that every child has access to a physical school place. In this regard, it is sometimes necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools.

The timing and duration of the accommodation need is also considered in determining the optimum accommodation solution – a short-term accommodation requirement does not require a long-term accommodation solution. For example, a school may require a temporary building in circumstances where a major school construction project is planned. Such temporary accommodation is removed when the major project concerned is completed. The length of time it is necessary to make use of temporary rented accommodation will vary from project to project.

The vast majority of schools using rented prefabricated accommodation are already part of the pipeline of projects under the school building programme and their longer-term accommodation will be addressed as part of these projects. Maximising the opportunities to achieve value for money involves matching, as best as possible, the accommodation requirement with the appropriate accommodation solution. This is relevant for all accommodation projects progressed by the Department.

The changing landscape in relation to enrolments including that of Ukrainian children means that accommodation requirements can vary locally and regionally and between short, medium and long-term and this is a relevant factor considered by the Department in determining the type of accommodation solution to be put in place.

In this regard, it is sometimes necessary to make use of temporary accommodation in order to meet the accommodation needs of schools.

In this regard I wish to advise the Deputy that the building at the school in question is not currently being rented from a religious order or organisation by the Department or on its behalf.