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

In countries that followed a zero Covid strategy, the schools were largely able to stay open after the first lockdown. The same could have been done here last summer, but instead the Government decided on a yo-yo lockdown strategy that has seen schools having to close repeatedly.

There is hope and the target of opening schools fully again, but with case numbers so high and the risk of a fourth wave that is underlined by NPHET, there are serious doubts and concerns. In the next ten days before schools are due to reopen, we need to bring down the case numbers and provide the investment to make schools safe. Instead, the Government is making decisions which jeopardise that possibility.

One year on, the Government has still not put in the investment to ventilate our schools properly. Instead, it promised teachers that they would be prioritised for the vaccine, but that has now been taken off the table. It has still not tackled the Covid outbreaks in the meat plants and the actions of private companies unnecessarily forcing workers to come into the workplace when they could safely work from home. It has gone against the NPHET advice by bowing, once more, to private business lobbying and agreeing to reopen construction and it has not implemented the 14-day backward contact tracing that is necessary.

Will these things be put in place in the next ten days so that schools are able to reopen safely?

See this speech in context