Ms Mary Magner:

I am glad the Deputy recognised the difficulties. For the past couple of years, the INTO sought a reduction in class sizes by one pupil per class per year over five years. There have been various budgets over the years and it is now more important than ever that this goal is delivered immediately. We often deal with class sizes greater than 30 and this is possibly related to an earlier question as to why Irish schools did not open earlier.

The recommendations for social distancing indicate it should happen "where possible". As the Deputy states, with junior and senior infants it will not be possible to enforce social distancing but it will be possible in higher classes. In smaller schools there may be several classes in one room, a teaching principal and undersized classrooms. Not all classrooms are 80 sq. m, and there can certainly be a major difficulty for a teaching principal or teachers in such cases where they must deal with 1 m social distancing.