Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in complimenting the Minister and her departmental officials on the superb job they have done to date in getting our schools up and running. I also compliment school communities throughout the country, including principals, teachers, special needs assistants, caretakers, secretaries and boards of management, who worked late into many nights over the summer to get their schools reopened. It is vital that we keep them open and operating safely and that we have full rapid testing facilities in place throughout the country in the event of a breakout of Covid. All the supports the Minister has made available to schools in terms of the provision of personal protective equipment, PPE, and sanitising equipment must continue to be available to them as the school year proceeds.

In the past 24 hours or so, I have had a number of queries in regard to Medmark and its assessment of whether teachers are at high risk in respect of Covid. In some cases, the conditions that are deemed to be high risk seem to contradict public health advice for other professions in terms of who should go into work and who should work from home. I ask that there be some sort of consistency in this regard and understanding shown towards the teachers who are expected to be in a classroom situation even though they may have high-risk conditions. Support should be given to them in dealing with Medmark.

Like many other colleagues, I am aware of issues around school transport provision. I compliment Bus Éireann, whose staff, particularly in the Ballina office, have been excellent in terms of providing information. Their difficulty is that they are faced with a capacity issue at secondary school level. I ask that the secondary school application hub be reopened in order to see what the actual level of demand is. The hub was closed early in August and some people missed that deadline for various reasons. It needs to be reopened if we are to work out the level of demand. Consideration should be given to involving other groups. The Local Link service, for example, has provided an excellent service throughout the country, including in County Mayo. I am sure an engagement with that company would show its capacity to facilitate the Minister's Department in providing school transport. In some areas of the country there is an excess of coaches available at this time. There should be some type of central hub operated by the Department to enable those coaches to be relocated to areas where there is a shortage. We must try to tackle this issue before it becomes a barrier to the successful ongoing opening of schools.

I know the Minister will show the same commitment and attention to the issue of school transport as she has shown to all other issues since her appointment. It is really important that information be given to parents as to how the Department is proceeding with the provision of extra capacity. Parents need to know that work is under way within the Department to ensure that school transport, particularly secondary school transport, is given the priority it needs at this time.

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