Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2024
97. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education if she is aware of the urgency in finding a resolution to the issue of children and parents crossing the road to attend a school (details supplied) in Donegal, given that another near fatal incident occurred recently; if she plans to deal with the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6039/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has no current record of receiving an application for additional accommodation from the school in question
The purpose of the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation.
Individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care, including traffic management measures. The issue of road safety measures in the road network outside the area of vested school sites such as road signage, traffic calming measures, car parking and pedestrian facilities are the responsibility in the first instance of the relevant local authority. Local Authorities have the power to decide on road safety measures outside schools to ensure that measures are in place to protect the safety of local school children. My Department has no function in this matter
I can confirm however that the school in question applied under the department's Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) for a safe set-down and entrance area to the school and the application was refused as it was deemed not meeting the criteria under the scheme. The main purpose of the emergency works scheme is to provide funding for unforeseen emergencies that impact on school buildings, in some circumstances the scheme also provides funding to facilitate inclusion and access for special needs pupils. An emergency is deemed to be a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment which is sudden, unforeseen and requires immediate action and in the case of a school if not corrected would prevent the school or part thereof from opening. The school was therefore advised to apply for these works under future Summer Works Scheme (SWS) projects.
The Summer Works Scheme (SWS), is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The SWS operates on a multi-annual basis. As part of its planning for 2024 and beyond, Department officials are considering and planning for the next phases of the summer works programme and the opportunities this may create to further support the sustainability agenda. Schools will be notified of the details of the next phases of the SWS in due course.
The Minor Works Grant is also available to primary schools and may be used to improve the physical infrastructure and appearance of schools without needing to deal directly with the Department.
Since 2020, my Department has invested in the region of €4.3 billion in our schools throughout the country, including the completion of over 750 school building projects with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 34 new school buildings.
School building projects at construction involve an overall State investment of over €1.2 billion. We also have a large modular accommodation programme delivering urgently needed school places.
This is a record level of investment in our schools and highlights the Government’s very strong track record of delivery in providing additional capacity and modern facilities for our school communities.
