Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want a reply to this, but I have been speaking to a number of teachers recently who have spoken about children being in and out of school over the last while. It will be a significant challenge for the witnesses to deal with kids' emotions and so on. It is anecdotal evidence, since one teacher told me that no specific research was done on this. He said that the female students were finding it much more difficult than the male students to fit back into school because male students get back into hurling, football, sports and so on. I am not saying that the female students do not but many do not have that same activity. The teachers who I was speaking to said that this will be a significant problem, and not just for the next months. They feel that both male and female children have lost out on much education over the last number of months, and they reckon that, beyond Covid-19, this could stick with them for the next 12, 18, or 24 months, and that they might feel that they are trying to play catch-up the whole time. It will be a significant challenge.