Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Taoiseach ach tá rud difriúil faoin earnáil seo agus tá a fhios aige é sin. Beidh na mná tí agus na coláistí thíos leis. Beidh impleachtaí maidir leis an gceantar, leis an nGaeilge agus leis na Gaeltachtaí. Is rud thar a bheith tábhachtach é seo.

It is very important that the implications of the summer colleges not going ahead is realised at Government level. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach could come back to me in writing on when the package will be announced.

My second question relates to children with special needs. I have repeatedly raised it with the Taoiseach at this level as well as with the Minister for Education and Skills. Can we, please, have some certainty as to what is being put in place, whether the special schools will be reopened and-or, in the meantime, that a package would be in place?

Finally, I do not accept the Taoiseach's response in regard to a row in the Dáil. I do not know how we could put trust in any advice that says it is not safe to be in this Dáil, which is empty, and that the Taoiseach should be ensconced in another room. I go back to Galway and I see people working. I go to the shops where they have to work all day. They cannot hide away in any room, neither can the nurses or the doctors. What I am saying to the Taoiseach is that we should be sensible. We are giving out contradictory messages that some people are more important than other people, and we are giving a very wrong message that we are now moving in the right direction in terms of Covid-19. Let us have a little sense and review the advice. I read the advice last Thursday that was passed out by the Ceann Comhairle at 2 p.m. and it made no suggestion that this should happen. I ask the Taoiseach to use the 45 seconds remaining to me to answer the question relating to certainty for the coláistí samhraidh, and particularly for the children and teenagers with disability and their families.

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