I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important issue and I thank the Minister for coming into the House at this late hour to reply.
I want the Minister to make a clear statement that he will ban all activities at open adventure centres in Ireland and extend that ban to schools or other groups of young people travelling to England, Scotland and Wales while the foot and mouth threat continues.
I have had a number of representations from schools and parents of transition year students who had booked into the Delphi youth adventure centre at Leenane, County Galway. Although they will be unable to travel because of the foot and mouth threat and the plea by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, to schools not to go on non-essential trips because of the risk of spreading the disease, the centre remains open and is demanding payment if the premises are not utilised.
As I understand it, young people utilise this important and high quality centre from as far south as west Cork or Kerry, Clare, all Connacht and along the Border area. One of the strongest representations I received was from the principal of the Royal School in Cavan, Mr. Ivan Bolton, who had 36 of his transition year students booked in at a cost of over £2,000. There are 230 pupils attending this school, of which 130 are boarders, many of whom come from rural areas along the Border from Mullyash, outside Castleblaney, County Monaghan, close to the South Armagh area, through Cavan and on to Leitrim, as well as from Longford and Meath.
The management and parents of this hard pressed school had no other choice but to decide not to allow the class to travel last Monday morning where they would have been mixing with young people from other parts of the country on 300 acres of land. The Minister must say "no", or refund those children for their loss.
After some pressure and publicity the management of the Delphi adventure centre agreed to rearrange the visit within the next fortnight. Does the Minister believe the danger will be over by then?
Many schools have planned trips to England, Scotland and Wales. I know one Dublin school which booked to travel through England and Wales to get to mainland Europe. Their travel agent advised them that he will not travel. The young people, many with little money, will lose their £50 deposit. In national terms the money will not overtax the Government but if the Minister banned their activities they might be covered by insurance.
There are 90 cases in the UK. We cannot let down our guard. We must use every means to minimise risk. Parents and teacher meetings have been cancelled. The secondary school and other management bodies have cancelled meetings as has the Teacher's Union of Ireland. Colleges like UCD have postponed open days. The IRFU refused to travel to Wales or England. The GAA and other sporting bodies have called off events at a great loss. Hotels, guest houses and other service industries have cancelled bookings. I pay tribute to all for their sacrifices.
There are still some people ignoring Government advice. I learned at the weekend that Eircom do not use disinfectant at its premises and then staff travel to the Border area. The Health and Safety Authority's headquarters in Dublin does not have disinfectant out and its agents continue to visit meat factories and farms. Management did not give any instructions about disinfectant and some of them will travel to the UK next week. Waterways Ireland continued work in County Roscommon until 27 February. Lorries and machinery crossed land and brought earth out on to roads and it is to go on to other lands on 5 March.
Customs Officers man the Border and know the road network. Can the Government explain why their knowledge and expertise was not central to monitoring the Border area? Then there might have been a ring of steel.
