Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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175. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the proposal to refurbish a school (details supplied) in Limerick to use for special classes; if she is aware that the recently announced second special class at the school is to be located at the original single special classroom; her plans to deal with this obvious overcrowding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22269/25]

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.

The purpose of the Additional Schools' Accommodation 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, my department has invested over €5.9 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1350 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes new school buildings some of which are being delivered in phases. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.50bn.

Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by the Department of Education are adding over 610,000 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 school’s 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.