Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising a number of issues. Let us be very clear on the date. He is correct in what he says about a public forum on Tuesday night. What I said exactly was that the provisional date we were looking at was 29 July and I said I would confirm that in a couple of days. It has been a couple of days, so I confirm in the House tonight that 29 July is the start date. The Deputy asked a really important question about the timetabling and the sequence of timetabling now to try to work through the wider uncertainties which will continue to be there. The first week in June will be the time after the work of the advisory group is completed. Working with the State Examinations Commission, that will be the date on which to let students know in advance of 29 July how the format and the timetable will look then. That is the sequence of events. I take the Deputy's point about the uncertainty and lack of clarity, but that is the world within which we are working and there are so many unknowns as to where we will be. If there are better ways of communicating messages - certainly if there is a better and more efficient way for my Department to communicate to Members of this House - I will ask my officials to do that. However, we must have a complete understanding of how this disruption has affected not only wider society at a general level and the movement of people. Some 1,300 departmental staff members, between Marlborough Street, Athlone and Tullamore, had to change completely their way of working. They are working remotely. They are complying with the social distancing ruling and so on. There is a bombardment of issues, whether school meals or SNA redeployment. The world continues to go on within the Department. This is a disruption, but I will certainly take back to the Department the issue the Deputy raised about communicating messages back in a more efficient manner.

The Deputy also talked about the SNAs. I wish to acknowledge the Fórsa trade union. It sat down with officials and worked hard in advance of coming up with this formalised redeployment plan. Within that plan was an aim to ensure that SNAs could formally continue with the work they were already doing. Many SNAs from day one of the school closures continued to engage with their students, be it at primary school or leaving certificate level. Yes, the Deputy is correct that there has been confusion on this matter. As of now, however, there has been engagement and Fórsa and the Department officials have agreed that there will be a training element to this which will involve the HSE. That is just the training element and it may involve some of the training taking place for some of the SNAs in particular HSE buildings or community care settings. This will be remote work for the SNAs, not work in any other capacity that is not within the agreement between Fórsa and my officials.

Schools will not open unless it is safe for them to do so. I said here this evening that I am engaging with my officials on the issue of school fees. We have changed the date for payment to after the examinations but I will continue that conversation. I know the Deputy has raised it publicly with me previously and I am certainly listening here this evening.

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