Ms Áine Lynch:

I am happy to reply, although I want to give my colleagues an opportunity to come in if they want to. The situation outlined by the Deputy is where we come to the individual needs of children. Schools will obviously need to be guided by the medical advice such children are getting. Schools are very caring environments. Long before Covid-19, school representatives have been doing their level best to connect with these kinds of children who, even before the current crisis, had difficulty with school attendance.

Schools have had to grapple with remote technology. That means they will have more ways at their disposal to connect with children who are not well enough to come into school, or are so immunosuppressed that it is not recommended that they do so. I know that happens anyway and some children who are in hospital have done video links to classrooms. There will be much more of an opportunity to expand those kinds of things. Schools have experience of using technology such as Zoom a lot over the past number of months. I am hopeful that will be a means of supporting those children.