Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Department will have to give it real consideration. During the committee's first session today, a professor from the school of medicine in UCD talked about the expectation that the virus will re-emerge in August. We should be pre-empting that and having a budget available which can be used to support the students and their families who are affected.

In regard to the summer provision and, in particular, the DEIS aspect of it, much of the work that is going on seems to be concerned with the well-being of students. That is absolutely welcome because we are going to have a flood of children experiencing emotional distress and an expectation on teachers to deal with that. What supports and training have been given to the teachers and SNAs taking part in the summer provision who will have to provide that well-being support, and how far in advance have those supports and training been given?