Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in to address the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. I echo previous speakers in acknowledging the work that she, her Department and those more widely in the education sector have done. Principals, boards of management and teachers have put huge work and effort into getting children safely back into school this year and it is important that is acknowledged.

This builds on an issue raised by Deputy O'Dowd which is the 30 September cut-off for the primary online database, POD, returns that will decide staffing, not for this year but the following year. As we are aware there may well be children who will be homeschooled for this year and who will be kept at home because they are in a high-risk category. This may artificially depress the numbers of students within a particular school and that will have a knock-on impact for staffing numbers in 2021. I raised this with the Minister's predecessor in the Dáil. Is it on the Department's radar and will it be resolved?