Danny Healy-Rae Presses Minister on School Bus Distancing and Space
Danny Healy-Rae questioned the minister about school transport and local school capacity, arguing that more must be done to ensure social distancing on school buses and to identify additional classroom space. He said current measures risked delays and pressed for clarity on interaction with bus operators and use of local halls where schools are at maximum capacity.
School transport concerns
Danny Healy-Rae said he personally operates school buses and expressed concern that not enough is being done to ensure social distancing, especially where secondary students travel alongside younger pupils from Kilgarden into Khmer and national school routes. He warned that reducing numbers per bus would require sourcing more vehicles and that days were passing quickly to implement changes.
Public health guidance on buses
The minister replied that buses will operate on the basis of public health advice, treating primary and older second-level children as a single cohort. Children will be assigned specific seats, sit with a sibling or a classmate, have access to hand sanitiser and wipes, and children under 13 will not be required to wear masks while those over 13 will.
Funding and protective measures
The minister said an investment of 11.3 million is being made available for PPE, sanitiser, cleaning and other measures on buses, and that PPE will be provided for drivers. The arrangements are framed as following the public health advice rather than alternative operating models.
School capacity and community spaces
On schools at maximum capacity, the minister said the £75 million fund requires schools first to reconfigure and declutter their own campuses and explore internal options such as assembly or general-purpose areas. Only if on-campus options are exhausted should schools consider outside spaces or community halls, which may be considered but must be justified as necessary after other measures are tried.
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Thank you very much, Kahirle. Minister, I just have a couple of questions. In relation to school transport, I'm getting more in, Minister, as to what actions have been taken or what interaction has been had with school bus operators and I have to require my interest. I'm a bus, I have school buses as well, Minister, but I don't believe that there's enough being done already to ensure social distancing where secondary students are to be taken to, we'll say, from Kilgarden into Khmer and national school-going children. There's an awful lot of work to be done if the numbers and the buses are to be reduced, because if Bus Aireann has to provide more buses, they will have to, I believe, tinder out, looking for more buses, and that will take time, and days are passing very quickly. Maybe you'll just answer that question. Thanks very much, Deputy. Just on the issue of the buses and the children on the buses, or the young students, as they are depending on their age, can I say that the buses are operating on the basis of the public health advice that has been given? And the public health advice is suggesting that children in primary school and the older children at second level, they're regarded as one single cohort. Okay. And what they mean by that is really that when the children get on the bus, okay, right, they are the same children every day. So they get on the bus, they will be assigned specific seats, they will sit with a sibling, or they will sit with a child in their class. And when they get on the bus, they will be the mechanisms of hand sanitizer, and whatever wipes might be necessary, or whatever, there will be PPE provided for the bus driver. But because they're regarded, and just to confirm as well, the children under 13 will not be required to wear masks and children over 13 on the bus will, but because they're a single cohort, the buses will operate as normal or has been traditional. And there is an investment of 11.3 million then being made available for the necessary work that might need to be done on the buses in terms of PPE, perhaps for the bus driver, the hand sanitizer, the wipes, the cleaning of the buses once the children leave the bus, and all of that. So it's on the basis of the public health advice and nothing else that they're operating in that manner. Thanks, Minister. Thanks, Minister. Thanks, Minister. In relation to schools that are at maximum capacity, and I can think of one, Guinea-Guilla is at maximum capacity, and the community group in the parish are offering a hall that they have, a kind of a rambling house. It's fully heated and it's in great condition, and it's in great condition, and they're only for the refurbishment of it, and they're able to, they haven't been able to generate any funds this year because they can't, but in places like they're offering a hall or a hall or space, they're offering space, but obviously they'd like some remuneration for it. Will places like that be considered, Minister, in light of the fact that the school itself is at maximum capacity at the present? If social distancing is required for the older children, there's work to be done there, and there are other places. I appreciate the point that you're making. Can I say to you again, and not to be repeating myself now, but the funding of the £75 million that's been made available to the schools is in the first instance to look within their own schools. They're looking within their own classrooms. They're decluttering them, if you like. They're removing all excess furniture that they don't need. They're going from the classroom, then they're going out to the other areas like the general assembly, general purpose area, whatever. They can reconfigure that. And it is believed that there may well be significant options within that. If all of that fails, there is the option of them looking to outside the campus if they can't find it immediately in their own campus. They can look at local halls or whatever the case might be. But that's not the first option, Deputy. It's down and they have to be able to show that there was a justifiable need for that. You know, in other words, that all other options within the school campus have actually been exhausted in the first place. For more questions. Yeah. Thank you. Mike.
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