Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for his question. On the issue of air filtration, ventilation and such matters, as I stated earlier, as part of the plans in how we use lecture halls I expect our discussion around ventilation to be part of that. Part of the intensive work the sector is undertaking includes consideration of the modifications one might make to a lecture hall to make it safe from a staff and student point of view. Hopefully, we will have an outcome on our deliberations on that in the next week or so.

On variants, the Chairman is correct and as a former Minister for Health I am always acutely aware of Covid-19, the dangers of it, and the fact that this is a virus, as the Tánaiste has said, which can often rubbish best-made plans. I am very aware of all of that but I am also very aware that the vaccines work. That is now the difference. We have a very transmissible and contagious variant and we are seeing a very significant spike in cases in many countries and are likely to see a big increase here but we also know that if one is vaccinated, this vaccine provides one with very significant protection from this variant. My optimistic note is built against the backdrop that every single week hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people are being vaccinated and fully protected together with the expectation of where we will be by the end of August as to vaccine level, coupled then with the fact that we have a plan that is endorsed by public health and is operating on a scalable framework as to a minimum and maximum amount of on-site activity which we monitor very closely.

In case I do not get the opportunity to make a further contribution, I must say to our stakeholders in the Irish University Association, IUA, THEA, the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, SOLAS, the HEA, the Union of Students of Ireland, the trade union movement and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Irish Federation of University Teachers, IFUT, the Teachers' Union of Ireland TUI, and AONTAS, that we are very lucky to have these stakeholders who are working so collaboratively. They are all working with a common aim of increasing on-site provision in a way that is safe for staff and students and that is really what is helping us make progress. I thank the Chairman.