Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

This is an area in which public health staff are leading and we are working closely with them. There is a procedure in place and the public health people are really trying to work speedily with schools. They will contact a school as soon as they understand there has been a case involving a student or staff member. They have been doing that but, as the numbers have gone up in recent weeks, it has become a greater challenge. It is a very challenging time for us all and we are hearing today about what happened over the weekend and the particular challenges that have arisen. In response to those particular challenges, the public health personnel are working to ensure the children in question are self-isolating and that there is follow-up. If any school staff member is part of the group who were, over the weekend, asked to do their own contact tracing, then the school is asked to inform the Department. We will make sure the public health people work with those staff and process them in an urgent way. We have had a lot of dialogue and briefings with stakeholders and the public health people in the past couple of days, as the Minister has outlined. We recognise the challenges in this regard. The public health authorities, supported by us, are seeking to put in place enhanced schools public health teams for when schools return after the half-term break.