John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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269. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will outline the status of an application (details supplied) for a construction project; the stages for such applications; the timeframe involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10006/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy, that the school in question has submitted applications under my Department's Additional School Accommodation Scheme (ASA) and the applications are currently being assessed.

The department received an application for amalgamation in October 2016. The school was given final approval for the amalgamation on 20th March 2018 with the only capital implication of the amalgamation being the reconfiguration of the existing toilets in both schools in order to cater for co-educational use as the school was to continue to operate on the two existing school sites.

The department received an application for major capital works in 2023 from the school in question for a new 8 classroom build to accommodate their amalgamation. Officials in my Department have corresponded with the school in relation to additional information requested for this application.

Subsequently the school have recently submitted an application in 2024 to provide for reconfiguration of existing accommodation to provide for a Special Education classroom and this application is currently being assessed.

An ASA application generally goes through the following steps with reviews taking place at points in the process. It is not possible to indicate a timeframe for each step given the number of factors and stakeholders involved:

1. Pre-Assessment : Before the application can proceed to assessment there are checks carried out to ensure all relevant documents have been submitted.

2. Assessment : The application is assessed by the responsible officer which involves compiling information on the school in question, the school planning area, other schools within the school planning area, special education needs within the area and demographics. At this point further information may be sought from the school.

3. Decision Made : The completed application passes to the manager of the responsible officer who makes a decision on the assessment.

4. Brief : The decision on the application is communicated to the school and a brief issues to the school for agreement. Further consultation may be required at this stage if agreement is not reached on the brief proposed.

5. Closed : When the brief is agreed by the school, the responsible officer forwards the brief to the Department's Technical team for project typing and costing. When this is complete the project is handed over to the Department's delivery team.

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.

At primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for a school’s accommodation requirements where an additional teaching post has been sanctioned by Teacher Allocation Section, or the requirement for a new class for pupils with special education needs has been identified by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes. The capacity at other schools in the area is also considered as part of the assessment of any accommodation needs.

The department's focus is on the most critical needs for the next school year. In the context of making the most effective use of our capital allocation, and mindful of climate action goals, officials in my department are working to ensure that all school accommodation capacity is being maximised in individual schools and across all schools in each school planning area.

It is very important that capacity in existing schools and across a town or area is maximised to the greatest extent possible. This includes ensuring that all school accommodation is being utilised as efficiently as possible, and that priority is given to the use of accommodation for classroom purposes, either to meet mainstream or special educational needs. This analysis is forming part of the Department’s current assessment process.

The applications for this school are being considered in this context and the department is working to get a decision communicated to the school as soon as possible.