John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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700. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a decision will be made on the additional schools accommodation application submitted by a school (details supplied) for the expansion of special needs classes; when funding will be allocated for the project; and the expected timeline for completion. [11943/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department has recently received an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question.

The purpose of the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation or at other schools in the area.

Since 2020, the department has invested over €5.8 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 600,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate.

This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

The key drivers of capital investment in the schools sector include:

• demographic growth, particularly at post primary level
• increased demand for special educational needs provision
• alignment of school place provision with new housing development
• climate action objectives including deep energy retrofit.