Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy O'Donoghue. As colleagues have outlined, pupils and parents are having a nightmare in regard to school transport. I spoke about this issue yesterday at the meeting of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response and I will do so again today. We have seen a lot of improvements carried out in schools throughout west Cork in the past couple of months. A lot of these were funded and carried out by the Minister's Department but major works were also made possible by teachers, other school staff, boards of management, parent associations, pupils and the general public giving voluntarily of their time. I thank all the people who are doing all they can to protect children from Covid-19.

Many schools have the room to implement the required social distancing but they do not have the number of teachers they need to adhere to the rules. I spoke yesterday about the situation at Our Lady of Mercy national school in Bantry, the details of which I have sent to the Department. There is a beautiful girl with special needs who attends that school and whose parents are desperate to get her back there. However, she cannot go back because the classes are too full. This child deserves to go to her school and I plead with the Minister to step in to ensure she can. The school has requested an extra teacher and has the space to ensure students are properly socially distanced. Scoil Bhríde in Ballydehob has the same issue of plenty of space but not enough teachers. As a result, there are too many pupils in each classroom and many parents are stressed about the situation. The school has requested an additional teacher. There is also a situation in the same school where one SNA is teaching three children, which should not be allowed to happen in any school in these times. I ask the Minister to intervene to help the very stressed parents of the pupils of Scoil Bhríde.

I have tried to make contact several times over the past couple of months with the Minister of State with responsibility for disability services, Deputy Rabbitte, but for whatever reason, she will not entertain me. That is unacceptable for a person in her role. I have been working with others to try to open hubs for adults and teenagers with disabilities who are in desperate need to get back to a routine and to interact with their peers. In the current situation, these disadvantaged people are regressing. We have identified the Mizen medical centre in Schull in west Cork as an ideal location for a hub as there is ample space in the fantastic building. As per usual, however, there are many hoops to jump through before anything can be done when all that is really required is a little bit of common sense from the HSE and the other powers that be. On behalf of the parents of children and adult teenagers with special needs, I ask the Minister to do her very best to ensure they can return to their schools and other services.

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