Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad that my wains are young adults and done with school because the U-turns this Government has taken over the reopening of schools has had me spinning around. The utter disregard for students, parents, teachers, principals and all of the ancillary school staff has been shocking. I am not usually shocked at this Government’s incompetence and arrogance; I expect it, unfortunately.

People are being told to stay at home, to work from home and to learn from home. The Government forged ahead with plans to reopen schools this week despite our highest daily numbers of positive Covid cases. Those plans were scrapped and then the Minister talked about just bringing in leaving certificate students for three days per week, without prior consultation with affected groups. Thankfully, students and unions rallied and a significant campaign took place and forced yet another U-turn. One thing this Government has been great for is demonstrating to everyone the power of the public and the power of standing together. Each U-turn of this Government has been because of public outcry and pressure. The people have the power and it would serve the Government well to remember that. Furthermore, we are all far more connected these days through social media, which is how we can so quickly prove the Government's own contradictions.s

At this week’s meeting of the Oireachtas disability group, we heard from advocates supporting parents of children with additional needs. They told us of major regression for some of the children following their time out of school and away from their routine. Regressions were reported relating to behavioural issues, with some children having seizures, losing vocabulary, losing the ability to speak and regressing in their toilet-training. Some children were being medicated because of their anxiety levels. Advocacy organisations are calling for the roll-out of the summer programme that ran last year, previously known at the July programme. The precedent is there for running these classes for children with additional needs. The Minister said that children with special needs are going back to school next week and it will be interesting to see how that goes.

I wish to speak briefly about universities because I will not be here for that discussion later. There are reports that some universities are already planning to be online again from the first semester later this year, while others still have not decided or communicated their plans for the rest of the current semester.

The Minister should let people plan. With all of the uncertainty around this pandemic, new strains, rates of vaccinations, and so on, the least service providers and employers can do is to carry out some forward planning. Realistically, we should probably be looking at online learning and an increased level of working from home for the rest of this year. The Government should let people organise for this in order that it can be done properly.

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