Mr. Mark O'Connor:

The issue with the unit is something we brought up earlier. We think the existing information is inadequate as to whether a child will be able to continue his or her journey from the unit and do that piece where he or she spends part of the day in the unit and part of the day in the mainstream class. I do not know what the solution is. As our colleague has mentioned, each school is autonomous and different situations arise in each school. The information coming from the Department is certainly not up to standard.

School transport is an issue, especially for children with special educational needs. We are aware of children who may travel an hour, an hour and a half or two hours to school each way in a taxi, perhaps with two or three other children with very little social distancing. That is a particular issue.