Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
552. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Education if her Department will send an official to a school (details supplied) in order to assist the school in ascertaining the best approach to improve and enhance the school building. [15364/24]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is not in receipt of a current application from the school in question, for the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme.
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.
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.
The main focus of the Department’s resources over the last decade and for the coming period is on the provision of critical additional capacity to cater for increasing demographics.
In terms of available funding, I can confirm to the Deputy that the Minor Works Grant for primary schools may be used to improve the physical infrastructure and appearance of schools without needing to deal directly with the Department.
Given that each school setting is different, individual schools are best placed to decide how best to use this funding to address their particular maintenance needs. In this respect the minor works grant funding provides good flexibility to address issues at local school level
The Summer Works Scheme (SWS), which is demand based, is designed to allow schools, on a devolved funding basis, to carry out necessary improvement works that will upgrade existing school facilities, which can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The Summer Works Scheme operates on a multi-annual basis. Schools will be notified of the details of future Summer Works Schemes in due course.
My Department also administers an Emergency Works Grant, and its purpose is solely for unforeseen emergencies or to provide 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. Additional information can be located on the Department's website: www.gov.ie/en/service/593d30-emergency-works.
