Mr. Andy Pike:

We also welcome the additional input from the HSE. We still have concerns around how close contacts are being defined. The concerns have not gone away. We are also concerned about how cases that are reported in the community may feature in an overall assessment of the extent of Covid-19 in our schools. That is not to say the situation is unsafe.

We have a little more information than we had a few months ago but we still have concerns. The issue of the 72 non-contact hours relates to an obligation to be available for additional work on special educational issues within a school if one is an SNA, as and when the need arises. We requested that SNAs not be required to be on-site during the pandemic any more than was necessary and in response to that, the Department of Education has changed policy to state that the 72 hours are mandatory and have to be carried out by every SNA. That has not gone to a third party in the Workplace Relations Commission but we do not see any justification for keeping people on-site unnecessarily during a pandemic. We do not understand the logic of such a move.