Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
582. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Education if the board of management of a school (details supplied) will be entitled to rent additional space in order to accommodate the students in the school in a safe manner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17756/23]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department is in receipt of an application for additional school accommodation (ASA) from the school authority in question.
Officials from my Department have corresponded with the school authority and approval has recently issued for rental of additional rooms to facilitate the opening of a special class in September 2023.
The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and Special Education Needs (SEN) accommodation 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 a new SEN class has been sanctioned by the NCSE, and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.
