Mr. Páiric Clerkin:

As regards morale, we are concerned. It will be a focus for schools. The Department and the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, have assured us and committed to providing supports to ensure we can address that issue with the whole school community, including teachers, schoolchildren, school leaders and parents. It is an issue which must be addressed. The starting point in all of this is the point made earlier regarding building confidence in the system. If we want to raise morale, we must ensure we have a plan which can be implemented and in which people have confidence. Appropriate training must be provided and everybody must understand their role and how they are going to carry it out successfully. That is the starting point. We must build confidence which, in turn, will build morale.

The one thing we will have to do when we go back in September is ensure we focus on that and support each other. Having an attitude that we must cover the six months that have been lost would be the wrong approach for us to take. It is about dealing with the challenges that we have now in supporting individuals and children, and giving the vulnerable children the supports that they will require. We must gradually help and support children to re-engage with school, and then the learning will take off from there.

The guidelines are a work in progress and many issues require clarity. Again, that clarity must come from the HSE. We need the medical guidance and facts that can back up that the plans we are putting in place will be safe. On temperature taking and all of those things, there needs to be absolute clarity on how those will be managed. What will ensure success is if the whole school community works together, that we are all vigilant and that parents are given the training they require to ensure they will not send their children into school and know when not to send children into school.

In terms of resources, there is a critical thing for us in primary schools. We need a panel of substitute teachers and substitute SNAs to ensure that every single classroom has a teacher. The very basic that any child should expect is that they have a teacher in his or her classroom on a daily basis. One cannot have a classroom of junior or senior enfants without a teacher. At the moment the first day of absence, in many situations, is not covered by a substitute, which must be addressed. We must have a panel of substitutes that we can call on to ensure that we will have the cover in place. We also need cover and a panel for SNAs. The vetting of SNAs is complicated because they must be vetted in every single school in which they work. We need a centralised process whereby SNAs can be vetted centrally and, therefore, have substitute SNAs available to schools across the education system so that we have the supports in place for our children with special educational needs.

Connection is key; that is what schools have been and will continue to be focused on as it is very important going forward.