Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste said that is the plan but none of us have seen the plan. He has asked the people to bear with us for a couple of days or a couple of weeks. The reality is that the people have borne with the Tánaiste for the past four months since the schools closed. It is now just over four weeks until the schools are due to open. We need a bit of certainty. We appreciate that some of this might take a bit longer. We need to know, for example, if the plan is for all children, nearly 1 million of them, to return to education for five days a week at the end of August or start of September. Is that the plan? Will the Tánaiste outline that? Will he tell us how many additional teachers will need to be hired, at a rough estimate, and when that process will happen? That does not happen automatically. What is happening with school transport? Bus operators do not know, yet the bills are coming in to parents and households. Will the Tánaiste give an indication that there will be no ban on school uniforms, for example, which are causing anxiety to parents?

Parents need these answers. They have waited for four months. They heard the previous Minister, Deputy McHugh, stand with the Tánaiste at a podium and say that there would be a comprehensive plan by the end of June. It did not materialise. They have experienced complete deafness from the Minister for Education and Skills, who has said nothing over recent weeks about what is envisaged.

Will the Tánaiste answer some very simple questions as to what are the principles of this plan? Will the Tánaiste give certainty, if things remain the same in relation to the virus, that all children will return to school on a five-day basis at the end of August?

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