Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to start by acknowledging the exceptionally difficult job the Minister, her Department and the entire school community have had and will continue to have in ensuring the reopening and functioning of the schools. It is a job we all need to acknowledge is difficult and we need to work with the Minister and her Department on that.

I want to restate Sinn Féin’s clear position. We have said all along that we want the schools to open. We want them to open, in the first instance, in the best interests of children but that must be done in a way that is clearly safe both for the pupils and for staff. What I would like to do is outline to the Minister the kind of representations that have been made to me by parents, in the first instance, but also by teachers and some principals and members of boards of management in recent weeks, so she can include those considerations in her work in the coming weeks and months.

While I want to echo the comments of others that there have been many success stories and many very happy moments over the last number of days and weeks, we are also getting representations from parents, teachers and principals who are concerned. The kind of language they are using with many of us is that there are aspects of the schools reopening programme that they feel are last-minute, that some aspects of the advice are unclear and that, at times, some aspects of the advice are contradictory. I want to emphasise that point.

There are a number of areas where the Government needs to improve its response in the coming period. The first is the messaging of the public health advice itself. Probably one of the biggest failures of the Government has been its failure to make very clear to parents and communities why public health advice for the reopening of schools is necessarily different from other settings. Parents will often say to me that they see us in the Dáil with very significant social distancing but those same rules are not being applied in school settings. I am not questioning the public health advice and I understand why it is there, but the Government must work harder to convince parents in particular why that is appropriate, is necessary and is what is being done.

We have teachers and principals who are still concerned around the provision of PPE but also about staff levels for permanent teachers, resource teachers, substitute teachers and special needs assistants. The Minister and the Department need to do much more to reassure schools, principals and boards that all of those resources will be there as needed, particularly in the event, as we have already seen happen, that some teachers or staff have to give up work temporarily to self-isolate or in other circumstances.

While there is absolutely no one-size-fits-all approach, each school has to take the public health guidance and apply it to its school as is most appropriate. Some members of boards have said to me they feel that in certain instances, they are effectively taking public health decisions. It is important to recognise the fine line between the flexibility that is required and the requirement that, ultimately, public health decisions are made by public health officials.

I want to finish by reiterating all of the comments that have been made by other Deputies around public transport. My experience, particularly in parts of Lucan in my constituency, is that there seems to be a lack of co-ordination between the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the public transport and private transport providers. The Minister is aware of the situation in Confey College, affecting my own constituency in Lucan and colleagues in Leixlip, County Kildare, and that still is not resolved. We also have issues around differing arrangements for children travelling to special needs schools and the concerns parents have, given that in some instances 19 or 20 children are on a bus for up to an hour. We need greater clarity and greater assurance on resources. Where the Government and the Minister do the right thing, they will have our full support.

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