Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This really is the icing on the cake, the final cock-up for the class of 2020. It will have ramifications not just for that class, but for secondary school students in fifth and sixth year who were already anxious and went back to school at the height of a pandemic. They look to the State and the people in charge for some reassurance that they have some idea what they are doing, and here we find ourselves now. I am very concerned by the fact that the Taoiseach had this information last week and clearly it was kept from the Opposition. The Minister for Education and Skills did not brief anyone or indicate that there was a difficulty. Last week students were hoping to start their university and third level courses. Now all of this has been thrown into disarray for a second time. They were told at the last minute that they could not be on campus, that their teaching would be online and so on. Now we have this. To say this is a mess is very much an understatement. There are two parts to it: the fact that errors were made and the fact that they were discovered last week and the Government kept them to itself. None of this builds confidence. All of this causes further anxiety for students and families who have already been through the mill.

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