Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the situation in the early childhood years sector. We have seen good interventions by the Government over the past week in addressing substitute teacher shortages in primary schools and, yesterday, in secondary schools. Some of those measures are very positive and will lead to a huge influx of people back into classrooms, stabilising the whole system at a time when we really want to keep schools open. It very much concerns me, however, that the incidence of Covid in crèches and childcare settings has increased by 500% over recent weeks. It should be noted that this is consistent with other age cohorts. Covid is simply on the rise. The same actions the Government is taking to address staff shortages at primary and secondary level must now be taken in the preschool context. In a recent SIPTU survey, one third of childcare managers said their facilities are now at risk of closing and 61% said they will have to reduce capacity if all things remain equal. We need to get the students in their final year of preschool studies in our third level centres back in.

Contact tracing was removed from the primary school context in late September, when the rate of Covid infections was in a very different space.

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