Mr. John Boyle:

On the issue of student teachers, I am not privy to what is happening in respect of their accommodation but we are aware that the colleges and the Teaching Council are examining a different way of conducting school placement. In my view, every student teacher this year deserves to have a Covid school experience. They deserve to get into schools and knuckle down, and not to be inspected in this scenario. They should be able to find out what it is like for parents, pupils and teachers having to deal with a pandemic, because that experience will serve them well into the future. It would be a great resource for schools to have at their disposal, as well as being experience for the student teachers. Given that there are 3,250 primary schools, many student teachers come from rural Ireland. They could stay at home during that period and would not have to pay for accommodation in the cities at that time.

As to cleaning, a procurement process for hand sanitisers will be put in place and there will be a limited supply of PPE for emergencies. Special schools are very concerned about this and the transport issue. It is critical that the Department gets this right. We are not privy to the discussions on school transport as of yet but we are very worried that if the fleet size is not suitable, children with special needs may lose out on their schooling for the lack of a bus. There will have to be funding or some other way to find a solution to bring those children to their schools safely and to keep everybody else there safe when they arrive. Without doubt, money will also have to be spent on that in the weeks ahead.