IPPN

Published: 21 January 2024

Department of Education officials had a briefing with Met Éireann this morning, and they do not at this stage anticipate that the storm will cause widespread disruption to the school day tomorrow. They will continue to give advice throughout the day about the status of weather warnings.

• Red wind and rain warnings are expected to last until 9pm on Sunday evening in Mayo and Galway and 1am in Donegal.
  
• Orange warnings are expected to last until 3am in Donegal, Galway and Mayo.
  
• Orange warnings are expected to last until 2am in Leinster, Cavan, Monaghan, Munster, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo
  
• Yellow warnings remain in place until 4am for the whole country.

There is no significant weather warning for school travel time or the school day at this stage, and Met Éireann has advised it does not anticipate this changing.

Schools were advised on Friday of the need to have regard to the Be Winter Ready advice as below.

Based on the current information from Met Éireann, Bus Éireann does not envisage any national disruption to school transport in the morning.

Bus Éireann will make decisions locally about routes depending on road conditions and will contact schools directly if required.

Bus Éireann has asked that if any school needs to take a decision to close for any local reason (such as fallen debris/flooding /road blockages etc.) this is relayed to the local Bus Éireann personnel as soon as the decision is made to close the school. Local Bus Éireann offices will be operational Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Advice on decisions to close a school and the link to the relevant circular on closures is in the winter ready advice provided to schools on Friday

As the current spell of cold weather continues, the Department of Education wishes to remind all schools of the useful advice contained in the Government’s ‘Be Winter Ready’ campaign.  

The ‘Be Winter Ready’ website and 2023 / 2024 campaign booklet includes advice for schools on dealing with issues related to weather conditions, including colour-coded warnings and health and safetyand direct links to relevant circulars.

Areas for consideration include maintenance of premises and utilities, salting and gritting and transport to and from school and having regard to local conditions.

The advice can be accessed online at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e1d49a-schools-and-severe-weather-be-winter-ready/.