Mr. Damian White:

I thank the Deputy for his question. School transport is something that every school principal has a concern about. We all echo the Deputy's call for more places and his comments on the difficulties faced in getting pupils to school, for example, finding places on buses. This is an issue around the country where second level education is provided for pupils from small, outlying schools in their local reasonably sized towns.

The Deputy asked about doubling the transport capacity. I spoke to an operator yesterday. He simply told me that he did not know whether the "stuff" was there. He was talking about the buses to service that need. Operators also face the issue of ensuring there is proper social distancing on their buses. Many bus drivers who are on school runs are older people and it would be difficult for them to supervise and ensure that social distancing is observed on buses. This is particularly the case with young children, some of whom would be travelling on buses for the first time. One of the operators' suggested solutions is for there to be an escort on every bus to ensure proper social distancing. That would be helpful.

I hope that, by September, there will be greater clarity about how many children can travel. We need it as soon as possible. Everything depends on the spread of the virus, but if the current trajectory is maintained, we hope that there will be the capacity on buses for a greater number of students and that, where a need is identified in individual cases, extra school buses will be put on. It must happen. This is one of the costs that would be addressed by the substantial investment package that we mentioned, and we would strongly encourage it being done.