Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My next question is just one example of the concerns about which I have contacted by different ethnic minorities. Some 40% of students in a classroom in a Rathkeale school come from Traveller families. The other 60% come from the settled community. Both communities have concerns because members of some families in the area work abroad and are travelling in and out of the country, including to Germany. Travelling is part of their culture. One parent stays behind with the children and the other travels a lot. They are in and out of the UK and Germany. There are concerns in the settled Traveller community and in the settled community. They wonder who will monitor whether these people are self-isolating when they come back. Those with children, in all communities, are wondering how it can be policed in an area like this? It is part of the Traveller culture that the girls do not go to the mainstream secondary school in Rathkeale. They do not want them to mix with the settled children because of their culture. This has been accommodated in the secondary school. A different section of the school is provided for them. In the primary school, this is not provided. Families are finding it very difficult to determine who will monitor all of this, for the sake of the health of all families concerned, when people are travelling in and out of the country.