Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very good. I have just two more questions for the Secretary General and then two for Mr. Loftus. I might as well ask them all together. The first concerns after-school activities. What is the likely guidance to schools on after-school or extracurricular activities based on school premises?

The second question is more of a perennial issue, which is the weight of schoolbags. Perhaps this is an opportunity for schools to apply to a fund for lockers to try to enable pupils to leave schoolbooks on the school premises. Obviously, there is a health and safety benefit in the context of Covid if schoolbooks are left on the premises and not taken back home when not necessary.

I have a couple of questions for Mr. Loftus in relation to school space and accommodation. If the school itself is small and social distancing is impossible, will there be a fund available for either renting additional space or providing additional space, be it Portakabins or whatever? Is that in the pipeline? Second, if a school has small numbers but the school building is large and there is a possibility of splitting the classes, will there be an opportunity for schools to apply for additional teachers so that those class numbers can be reduced, bearing in mind that some of the class sizes exceed the normal class sizes? They might come back to me on those.