Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I worked in a post-primary school that had 1,200 students. I can appreciate the difficulty caused by Covid-19 and how it will be possible to organise things. One of the key points will arise when students are out of class. How will that situation be monitored and that activity supervised? Sometimes one needs to have eyes in the back of one's head to see everything that goes on in a school. People congregating without the knowledge of the school authorities can create problems.

One of the key issues where I noted problems in the past concerned students coming to school on public transport and getting off at a central location. There is a major issue regarding how to then get students into the school building and how they leave again in the evening.

Generally they tend to rush out once the bell goes and if someone is in the way I feel sorry for them. How is that going to be managed? The issue of restriction of classes also arises in this context. If one is a teacher of a subject like Irish or English, one's students will have to stay in their room if at all possible rather than having teachers based in their own rooms. This will involve more movements of teachers rather than students as a way of restricting unnecessary movements in the school.

I will conclude by asking about the involvement of parents in break time supervision. I accept and acknowledge totally the witnesses' concern for principals, vice-principals and other postholders. Unless one gets buy-in from everybody - all of the staff and all of the parents' council - it is not going to work. Could the witnesses comment on those issues?