Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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456. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a new national small school’s project will be introduced. [32656/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government provides for a number of measures to support small schools, including introducing a new national small schools' project and trialing new administrative supports. The Government is very aware that small schools are an important part of the life of local communities.

The current small schools' action research project established in 2021 is due to conclude at the end of the next school year. The project has brought small schools together in local clusters, enabling them to collaborate, identify common challenges and trial innovative solutions.

It includes six clusters of small schools, two in Galway and one each in Donegal, Kerry, Wicklow and Waterford, consisting of between three and five schools per cluster. The feedback from schools has been extremely positive and this is reflected in the interim evaluation report recently published by my department.

The independent review identifies potential areas for closer collaboration and an analysis of the scalability of actions already undertaken. As the project progresses a further evaluation will take place. Learnings from this evaluation of the current project will be invaluable and form a strong basis to inform the future policy direction in relation to all small schools, including how the Programme for Government Commitment can be delivered.