Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge it as an indisputable fact that students are best served when they are in school. Notwithstanding that, we are living in the reality of a Covid-19 pandemic in which all of society in this country, within reason, is closed down. It is a significant endorsement of the importance of education in Irish society that education and childcare are the only sectors open during the current restrictions. When we reopened the schools in September last year and there was uninterrupted learning through to December, we closely followed the public health advice and the input of NPHET. In this instance, the latter has advised that it is looking for a cautious and phased return to school. While I would wish that we were in a position to have more children and young people in school, it is on the basis of the advice from NPHET that we are proceeding as we are.

It is worth making the point that when schools were stood down, as I stated earlier, it was because of the mobility of 1.1 million people. Schools in themselves are seen as places of low transmission, and this has been echoed on a number of occasions and as late as this past weekend by Professor Philip Nolan, the deputy chief medical officer and others. It is, of course, our absolute agenda that schools would further reopen on 15 March and again on 12 April. However, there is a burden of responsibility being placed on all of society to ensure that can happen. The deputy chief medical officer has made it very clear that we must continue to see improvements and numbers coming down. We must see hospitalisations decreasing and we have seen very good news on that again today. Society must invest in this instance to ensure our schools can reopen fully and as quickly as possible.