148. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Education and Youth the status of an application for additional school accommodation by a school (details supplied)); the timeline for same; if the application will be prioritised given the current conditions in the school. [73549/26]

I can confirm that the department is in receipt of an application from the school in question under the additional school accommodation scheme (ASA) for a mainstream classroom and a special education teaching room.

Given the general downward direction of overall enrolments in the area the department's focus for the assessment of such additional accommodation applications will be as follows:

- Analyse the extent to which enrolments at this school and neighbouring schools are serving the local area in the first instance. This will identify if some of the pressures on local capacity are arising from the enrolment of pupils from outside the local area where there may be other school provision opportunities available to them.

- In assessing accommodation capacity at this school and neighbouring schools, an assessment will need to be made on how best to utilise existing capacity in the context of both mainstream and SEN requirements in the local area.

The above sets the parameters for the department’s decision-making processes and this will, where necessary, involve engagement with school patrons and relevant individual schools as appropriate.

The department will continue to build on the progress made over recent years with the continued rollout of projects on a prioritised basis to meet the most urgent needs in terms of provision of additional capacity and modernisation of existing facilities.

The accommodation needs at the school in question will be considered in the above context and a decision will issue to the school authority directly shortly.