Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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552. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to examine issues with a building project in a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48746/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that the school in question was issued a provisional letter of offer for 2 Special education classrooms, 1 Special Education Tuition room, 3 Mainstream classrooms and 1 construction studies room following their application for capital funding, under my Department's Additional School Accommodation Scheme.

The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and accommodation for students with special educational needs is available to accommodate for students enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation or at other schools in the area.

My Department has a significant modular accommodation programme in place to assist schools in the provision of additional capacity, including in respect of facilitating the establishment of special classes.

This programme involves the use of project management supports which is designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in relation to the management and delivery of projects.

The use of my Department’s Modular Accommodation Framework also assists in ensuring lead in periods for procurement of modular accommodation are minimised to the greatest extent possible. To date this has worked very well in the education sector and has seen delivery of large scale, high quality modular accommodation to meet the needs of children, particularly those with special educational needs.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy, that the school in question have accepted an offer of modular accommodation and this project has been progressed to the Department’s Project Manager Framework. The project managers have carried out a site visit of the school in question and a viability report has been completed and submitted to the school authority for agreement.

The school authority has requested an alternative location for the modular accommodation. This is currently being reviewed by my officials and the school authority will be contacted directly upon completion of this review.

I can assure the Deputy that my Department will continue to support the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and schools through the provision of the necessary funding and capital investment to ensure all children are successful in accessing an education appropriate to their needs.