Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 February 2023
425. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education the progress to date in the completion of a site assessment at a school (details supplied) which was due to be carried out in September 2022 and is urgent in line of extra class spaces required for children with special needs; if every effort can be made to ensure that this is undertaken as soon as possible; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8666/23]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has no current record of receiving an application for additional accommodation from the school in question.
It is open to the school authority to make an application for additional accommodation through the 'Additional School Accommodation scheme (ASA)' which is available at www.education.ie.
The purpose of the Additional School Accommodation (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.
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 NCSE, and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.
