Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 June 2023
240. Deputy Steven Matthews asked the Minister for Education the position regarding a new outdoor classroom for a school (details supplied); if this can be considered under funding allocations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31777/23]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is not in receipt of an application for capital funding, under the Additional Schools' Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question.
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.
It is open to the school to utilise its Minor Works Grant or to apply under the Summer Works Scheme for improvement works to external facilities.
The Minor Works Grant is the funding mechanism for schools to deal with small-scale improvement or maintenance works.
The Summer Works Scheme is the funding mechanism for dealing with more significant improvement works that are usually carried out during school holiday periods to minimise disruption to the operation of schools. The Summer Works Scheme operates on a multi-annual basis. It is envisaged at this stage that the Summer Works Scheme will be next opened for new applications later in 2023 for delivery of projects on a phased basis from 2024 onwards. Schools will be notified of the details of the Summer Works Scheme in due course.
