Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The atmosphere has changed in recent weeks and months and there is a rising concern about the incidence of the pandemic. It was clear there was a need for dedicated action, which is to be welcomed.

We also welcome the fact that the Government eventually listened to the point made by Sinn Féin and others for weeks about the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy scheme. We would like the Government to have gone further. It was incredible these payments were cut in the first place and not restored in the budget. It was clear these supports are necessary to ensure people are not put into penury or put to the pin of their collar because their work is gone. That was and still is a reality facing people. I urge the Government to address that.

After announcements were made around restrictions, attention shifted to the sphere of education and schools. It is a pity the Minister for Education and Skills is not here. She may well have a good reason not to be here. One of the requests for a debate, made by Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats, was specifically on the implications of level 5 for education. The picture is unclear. Level 5 is subject to public health advice and significant clarity is needed.

Sinn Féin supports the objective of schools being open in a safe and sustainable way. We saw the damage done, despite everyone's best efforts, and the learning lost in the early part of this year. We see the benefits of children being in school. I see it with my own family. It is vitally important schools remain open. However, it must happen in a safe and sustainable way.

While it is an objective we support, regrettably, there is a rising concern about how schools are able to function in this context which needs to be urgently addressed. We raise those concerns not to create some calls for extended closures of the kind we do not want to see. We want to see these concerns addressed. We have raised them for weeks but many of them have not been addressed. It is the same for staff, unions and parents.

Schools have had enough significant issues and chaos to deal with over the past year without the fiasco of an email at 11.40 last night informing them that one of the 11 sanitiser products recommended is defective and that they should close their school if they cannot source an alternative. Principals and school leaders had to decide late last night or early this morning whether to open their schools. That simply is not good enough. I do not know how this happened or how the Department of Education and Skills only found out and informed people at that stage. I have heard many stories of parents and thousands of kids turning up to school this morning to discover the school gates were shut and schools closed for the day. Many principals only learned of the issues this morning. There are significant questions for the Department.

We now know that the recall notice stated the products were due to be recalled by Tuesday. Why did this break so late? In a recent email, the Minister's private secretary informed a member of the public that all sanitiser providers were asked to provide product samples which were then assessed and evaluated by a team with the necessary technical competencies. The product in question can apparently cause dermatitis, eye irritation, upper respiratory system irritation and headaches, as well as aggravating asthma. I have been contacted by many parents concerned by this. The product was supposed to be sampled and tested. The Department said each of the sanitisers was sampled and tested. How was this missed? What kind of tests were happening that they did not pick up how damaging this hand sanitiser is? It was being used in schools for children when it was not suitable.

Deputy Lahart earlier said people were making too much of this issue. It is not much to expect that when the Department recommends a product to schools it is safe to be used by children. How did it only come to light now? Did the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine not tell the Department of Education and Skills? Has the Department of Education and Skills been sitting on this information for a few days? We need to know who is responsible.

Unfortunately, this is just one of a number of debacles in the Department of Education and Skills in recent months. Six weeks ago, we sent the Minister a copy of our policy document, Keeping Schools Open, in which we set out the issues which had to be addressed in order to ensure that schools could remain open safely and sustainably in the long run. I regret many of these issues still remain. One issue we identified was testing and tracing. I am concerned about some of the reports I am receiving. There is a concern, particularly among school staff and parents, that a different approach is being taken in this area. Certainly the timelines are not adequate. The approach being taken or the criteria being adopted when it comes to tracing in schools is not of the same standard as it is generally. When the app tells teachers they have been with a close contact, it does not count and the teacher in question must go to the school principal. In recent days, because the tracing system collapsed, they got a text message instead. That has manifested in a number of other examples as well. School staff have spoken to me about it and they are concerned. It is not good enough. I want to see confidence restored in the system. We will do that with an adequate system of tracing and testing. The Minister talked about a dedicated system of tracing and dedicated school teams. She mentioned this briefly on the 1 o'clock news but we have heard nothing else about it. What will these teams do? What will their work involve? To what criteria will they be working?

If we are to have school specific teams, we need to have people involved who understand the dynamic involving schools because it is not as static as it was before, even with the pods and all the rest. I want to see schools continue to stay open but we need to do an awful lot more to ensure they do. One measure we must take is to ensure confidence in the system. Getting tracing right and ensuring school staff and parents see that it is done properly, have confidence in it and know that they will be tested when they should is essential.

We have done nothing in terms of space. It just is not good enough. Our school system was difficult to get back open because our system is underfunded, understaffed and overcrowded. Nothing has been done to create additional space to ensure an ability to achieve social distancing. That urgently needs to be addressed by the Minister if she wants to ensure full confidence in the school system and it stays open in a way that is safe and sustainable.

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