Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first point the Deputy raised was about additional needs and resource hours. We issued guidelines yesterday to all schools and principals to ensure that we connect with our most vulnerable students. That attention to detail will continue. Second, many of our SNAs have already been engaged in ensuring that continuity of connection between their students within schools. The feedback we are getting formally and also anecdotally is that that relationship is very strong but anything we can do to ensure there are additional resources or to protect the existing resource hours will be kept to the forefront.

The Deputy raised the issue of childcare, the ECCE years and what will happen in September. We are in the space where we are working within public health advice but I am happy to raise that issue with my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone.

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