Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I agree with her on the need to underpin and support principals in schools as they navigate and manage an unprecedented public health pandemic. It is to their credit, and to the credit of teachers, SNAs and all staff within a school, that they have worked extremely hard to make the reopening of schools, and their continued opening, possible.

I salute and affirm the work they are doing in that regard. The Deputy is also correct that additional stresses and strains go with Covid, such as constantly urging students to avoid gathering together and making sure that all the various guidelines are being adhered to. I spoke to some teachers during the past week about this. The school environment now is more different than ever before because of all the public health restrictions in schools and how the schools are managed, broken up and so on. That has to be acknowledged. Equally, however, I have spoken to many teachers who are happy they are back at school and that the children at primary and students at post-primary are also back. The learning environment is key to a child's chances in life, and prolonged absence from a learning environment or from school can be very detrimental to a child or young person's development, so we have to work with and support those involved in this regard. The Department of Education and Skills is continuing its engagement with the partners in education, including the unions, with a view to trying to make sure we all work together to ensure that what has been a strong partnership to date continues to underpin the development of our children and students.

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