Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I dropped my own children to primary school this morning and was speaking to my wife, who is a teacher in another school in Nenagh, at lunchtime and the volume of children and teachers who are out of school is something that all Deputies are experiencing and hearing about and it is the same thing across the country. We need to work together to try to find as many solutions as we can.

On antigen testing the Ferguson report recommended it last April. I presume the Government is open to tweaking the system because it needs to be tweaked and the antigen tests need to be based in the schools instead of being posted out afterwards and this is my honest assessment. This is something we all must collectively change.

I also ask the Government to consider buying HEPA air filters as they would be a good investment throughout this virus. We should just do it. Ventilation is critically important.

On vaccines, post-Christmas, now that we have a report from the European Medicines Agency, will that vaccination be done through the schools?

Finally, on the leaving certificate, I heard, accept and, in fact, agree with what the Taoiseach said earlier, probably, but is there are a continuing analysis of the fact that so many students at leaving certificate level have missed so many hours and days and teachers have also been out of the schools?

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