Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the three contributors for their submissions. Obviously, People before Profit supports the ideas outlined in the submissions. We cannot forget that schools are a fundamental educational space in the State but they are also a workplace for teachers, students and staff so they must be safe and so forth. Covid-19 has highlighted the great fault lines in public services in terms of education, health, etc. It has also highlighted the pupil-teacher ratio. Ireland has the highest pupil-teacher ratio in the EU. In that context, Irish classrooms will probably look very different in September than they did last March. Are there enough resources to meet the challenges? If not, the situation will be a lot worse.

For the benefit of the people viewing the debate, will our guests please outline what a typical classroom of one teacher, 30 students and, possibly, an SNA, will look like in September, taking into account the current public health guidelines? Some schools have 1,000 pupils, so adhering to social distancing will be extremely challenging. Will our guests please answer my question on resources and outline what a typical classroom in this State will look like in September?