Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

In September, the German federal Government spent €200 million on air purifiers for schools and childcare centres. Here, HEPA air purifiers could be provided for every Irish classroom at a cost of approximately €12 million. However, the Government has decided not to take this step. I find this incredible, given that Covid is an airborne disease and our school buildings house school communities of approximately 1 million people, five days a week and for six hours most days. Members of the State's expert group on ventilation, a subcommittee of NPHET, has been critical of the Government's failure on this front. Indeed, four of them were forced to go public yesterday to challenge comments made by the Minister for Health on this issue. Children have been asked to forgo Christmas parties and pantomimes and they are shivering in the cold in their classrooms. People are doing that. When is the Government going to do the right thing by them and put air filtration systems into every classroom in the State?

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