Dundalk facing a shortage of school wardens

Dundalk is facing a shortage of school wardens as Louth County Council has experienced difficulty in recruiting people for the post since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The local authority has plans to retrain general operatives for the task, councillors were told at Dundalk Municipalnicipal District’s April meeting.

Councillors also suggested that groups of school pupils could take on the task as has been done in other areas and it was also mooted that escorts accompanying children with special needs on buses could also fulfil these duties.

Cllr John Reilly (pictured) had raised the issue, saying he believed there was a vacancy for a school warden at Mulholland Avenue and Cllr Robert Nash also called for the appointment of a school warden at the roundabout at the Inner Relief Road/Avenue Road, where the traffic lights aren’t working.

Senior Engineer Mark Johnson said that there was a problem with school wardens as the local authority was short of them.

“We are trying to train up general operatives but they have to be Garda vetted so it will be next season before they are ready. The plan is to get them in for September,” Cllr Conor Keelan suggest that schoolchildren could be used to address the problem.

Cllr Thomasas Sharkey said that there is a programme where students go in teams of six, three on either side of the road, to assist children cross the road. He also suggested that the Council should tap into the bus escorts who accompany children with special needs to school.

Mr Johnson replied that one pedestrian crossings are put in, that frees up the need for school wardens and they move them to other locations.

However, there had been more school wardens retiring since Covid so they were quite short.

He thought the idea of using the six pupil teams and the bus escorts were good ones but he didn’t see them having any new school wardens between now and September.