Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, along with my colleague, Deputy Conway-Walsh, who will flesh this out, want to flag with the Minister the issue of calculated grades. I do not need a response now and I may raise the issue with her on another occasion. Students who sat the leaving certificate in 2019 are concerned about the implications for their college places. I believe solutions can be found and I will write to the Minister's office with some suggestions. The issue can be resolved and I urge the Minister to act because it is vitally important in terms of being as fair as possible to those students.

The schools are open. We had our first day back with our nine year old on Thursday and it went very well. Earlier today I acknowledged the extraordinary work done by school staff, teachers, boards of management and parents.

I have been very critical of the Department. I will be again. I will be this afternoon. Countless issues and many gaps and areas of concern need to be resolved. It would, however, be churlish of me not to acknowledge the fact that the Minister and her Department staff have worked hard on this issue, and I wish to acknowledge that now.

However, getting schools open is one thing; keeping them open is as great a challenge, if not more of a challenge. What parents, teachers and everyone else connected to schools right across the State want to know is whether the schools will stay open on a long-term, permanent basis and whether the reopening will be sustainable. We have heard throughout the day from representatives of school staff and parents and people advocating for those with special educational needs that there are a range of issues that suggest that the return to school has not been flawless and that there are major risks that could potentially undermine that return. There are a number of keys issues - I have written to the Minister about this - that need to be addressed to ensure that schools remain open safely and sustainably. The first is rapid priority testing. The next is supporting families and parents where a child is displaying symptoms, whether that is expansion of force majeureleave or illness benefit or whatever other measures the Government needs to take. It is essential that parents are supported in making the right choice. They will want to keep their children out when they are displaying symptoms. That should not mean their risking their income or their job, and there is a policy gap there. I appreciate it is not just the Minister's responsibility but she needs to talk to the Ministers with responsibility for employment and social protection. This is central to ensuring that schools remain open. We need to reduce the largest class sizes in Europe. We need to deal with the shortages of teachers, which do exist in some areas, whether or not the Minister chooses to acknowledge it, and we need to ensure that the children who are most affected by the closures of schools are not left behind when it comes to those with special educational needs.

I will move on to my questions. The first relates to that first priority I raised with the Minister in writing and just now, namely, priority testing. It was reported by Emma O'Kelly of RTÉ news that this had been agreed. Subsequently she clarified that the Department was now telling her that it had not been agreed. She stands over the fact that this was reported to her but, whatever the position and whatever the Department told her, the Department's current position, as I understand it, is that there is not yet priority testing. That is not good enough. That needs to be resolved. When will there be priority testing for children and school staff?