Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the broader point that Deputy Gino Kenny raised about pupil-teacher ratios. Does the Minister accept that if schools are to operate properly in a post-coronavirus world or in a world where the coronavirus persists, the pupil-teacher ratio will have to come down, we will have to invest in our education system and we will potentially have to make infrastructural investments to facilitate social distancing, the safe operation of schools and so on? There is a coming together of the needs of children in schools, the need to protect against a renewed pandemic in future and the issue of the environment because teaching jobs are low carbon but high quality. Does the Minister not see that there is now a strong case, although there always was a case for it in reality, for dramatic reductions in the pupil-teacher ratio?

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