Members will have seen the events unfold yesterday evening on Ballyblack Road East near Carrowdore, where a major incident was declared following a crash involving a school bus.

A bus carrying over 40 pupils from Strangford Integrated College left the road shortly after 4.00 pm. All our thoughts are with the four pupils who were hospitalised following the incident and with their friends and families. We wish them all a speedy recovery following what will have been a horrifying ordeal for them. I pay tribute to all the first responders who attended the scene yesterday afternoon and mobilised the incident centre at the school.

The Education Minister will visit the school community today, and there will be a focus on ensuring that students can avail themselves of counselling services and trauma response services through the Education Authority's critical incident response team.

There will, obviously, need to be an investigation of the incident, but, in the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved and the wider Strangford Integrated College community.