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

There were 3,726 Covid-19 cases confirmed yesterday. This is the highest figure since January. Schools are on the front line of the fight against Covid-19 and they are not getting the support they need from the Government. Back in September, the Government decided to stop contact testing and tracing in schools. In this Chamber I described this as a hear no evil, see no evil policy and the Taoiseach said that was an unwarranted comment. Now we see the consequences of this policy. Will the Taoiseach reverse the mistaken decision and reintroduce proper testing and tracing in schools and will he also address the issue of the lack of ventilation and, in particular, the lack of filtration. While Australia and Germany are providing high efficiency particulate air, HEPA, filters for every single classroom, we still do not even have a CO2 monitor in every classroom. Will the Government provide classrooms with the HEPA filtration systems that they need in order to reduce the spread of Covid-19 so that we can keep our schools open and do so safely?

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