John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the Minister, the Department, principals, teachers, caretakers, office staff, cleaning staff and boards of management across the school system who have done Trojan work to get the system back up and running, and continue to do so.

I wish to raise two issues. I am not sure if the Minister referred to the first one in her opening remarks, but it relates to schoolbags. In fact, one of my colleagues mentioned the issue. The guidance issued from the Department encouraged schools to declutter classrooms and free up spaces. I appreciate that and the constraints that exist, but it is having a negative impact. It has been raised extensively by parents in Waterford because students are obliged to bring books into and out of the school. A circular was issued by the Department 15 years ago in 2005 regarding the weight of schoolbags and recommended that the weight should not be more than 10% of a pupil's body weight. However, the calls to my office refer to students carrying bags that weigh well in excess of 50% of their body weight and the negative impacts that may have on their future development and on back issues in the future. I can suggest a solution to it, given that there are base classrooms now for students. While I appreciate that we do not wish to clutter them, if students could leave their books in their base classroom, where possible, and use online e-books at home for their homework, it would remove much of the problem. I understand that the Minister cannot go into the nitty-gritty of each school, but some guidance from the Department in that regard would be useful.

I also wish to refer to school transport, which many of my colleagues have raised. The Minister said that primary tickets will be allocated to those who apply and pay where capacity exists on routes. I raised such an instance in the Seanad last Friday. It is a family with three children who have been accessing school transport for the last number of years. There are four places on the school bus and it passes their front gate, yet there appears to be no joined-up thinking to point out that there is space on the bus to give them access. Perhaps there could be a clearing house where such issues could be brought to the Department. I suggest that the Minister take that on board. I thank her for her time.