Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I sent a message to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education this morning relating to a second-level school in Donaghmede that Deputy Duncan Smith and I visited this morning. The conditions in which the children and staff are working are quite deplorable. I ask the Government to address the issue as soon as it possibly can.

I want to raise the issue of the return to school. In our view, there are thousands of children out of school unnecessarily. There are asymptomatic children being kept out of school for 14 days. Is the Tánaiste engaging with the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, to re-evaluate the system as it currently stands because the public health teams are not engaging with schools as they did prior to the summer? As the Tánaiste will be aware, the public health team used to connect with the school and make a determination on what should happen next in the case of a Covid case. Now we have a situation where the public health teams are not engaging as well. Principals are left two, three, four or five days without any communication and having to make their own determination.

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