Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Today we learned that 10,000 of the air monitors due for delivery in schools across the country are defective and now we have a scramble to see how quickly replacements can be found. The mid-September deadline will be missed, similar to the original deadline of the first week of September. The Minister, Deputy Foley, said at the end of August that the order was put in three months ago but there was international demand during a global pandemic that apparently could not be avoided. This has happened even though the Health Protection Surveillance Centre recommended the use of air quality monitors in classrooms back in October 2020 and the teacher unions were raising the issue of monitors in November 2020. When I asked the Minister about this in December 2020 in a parliamentary question, she replied that the Department "does not consider it necessary for schools to install such monitors in classrooms", but it was "a matter for individual schools to consider whether they wish to use some of their minor works grant funding for this purpose".

See this speech in context