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

In the North, the opening of schools has been acknowledged as a key driver of a second wave of coronavirus cases. There is growing evidence in the South that the same is the case, as can be seen in the weekly case increases of people of schoolgoing age as a percentage of new cases. It has increased from a low of about 4% a week at the end of June to approximately 13% in recent weeks since schools have returned.

Last Saturday, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI, decided to ballot teachers for industrial action. They have resorted to this because they are unsatisfied with the measures that have been taken to ensure their safety and the safety of students at school. We all know that the coronavirus seeks out vulnerabilities in individuals and attacks them mercilessly, but the same is true on a societal level. It has exposed the weaknesses in an underfunded health service in particular, but the same is also true in schools. We are paying the price for the lowest rate of investment in schools in the entire OECD. We are paying the price for a pupil-teacher ratio of 26:1, compared with an EU average of 20:1, and for circumstances in which one in four schools does not have running hot water. It is incredible that in 2020, one in four schools is without hot water.

One crucial, immediate issue is that of ventilation. We know now that airborne transmission is a key way in which the virus is spread. It is why indoor environments are particularly dangerous. A total of 84% of principals say their schools do not have adequate ventilation. Will the Government commit to rolling out a programme of retrofitting of ventilation in schools?

There is also an issue with the provision of information. Last week, the Dáil was cleared out while the Minister for Health was getting a test, but at a school in my constituency, someone tested positive and the teachers and the students who had worked side by side with the student were not even tested. It is mind-blowing. A quite outrageous story was reported a week and a half ago in Drogheda, where a teacher was notified by the Covid tracker app that they were a close contact of someone who had tested positive, but when the HSE found out they were a teacher, they were reportedly told that because they were a teacher, and because the transmission had happened in a school environment, they were no longer counted as a close contact. Why are teachers and students not being categorised as close contacts and tested in the same way as others?

Many other issues are raised in respect of safety at school. Teachers with underlying conditions and at high risk are still, despite the publicity around it and so on, being forced to go into school by a private company, Medmark. One of the cases was a teacher who has reported battling acute leukaemia, diabetes type 2, asthma, anaemia and an auto-immune disorder, and was told by Medmark they had to return to work. Will the Government give a commitment that no teachers who are high risk, and who are advised by their doctors not to work from school because they cannot safely do so, will be forced to attend work? The ballot by the ASTI is a warning to the Government. Is the Government going to heed it?

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