Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I suppose everyone is entitled to a break but it is so important the Department of Education takes time over the Christmas period to ensure we get schools right and ensure they are safe. Keeping schools open and functioning well is so vital. The latter aspect is important; it is not just about them being open but that they are functioning well. Now, over the Christmas period, is our chance to get that right and ensure children are returning to school buildings in January with all the mitigation measures necessary to allow schools to reopen, stay open and function well. We need to throw the kitchen sink at this. There can be no necessary expense spared. In truth, that has not happened. The Government has been dragging its heels on some of the issues. There is no question about that, in my mind. This is far too important to get wrong.

HEPA air filtration systems have a vital role to play in our schools. I am glad the Government is finally coming to acknowledge this and at least conceding to the principle of it. However, the way it has been announced is not practicable, workable and will not deliver the results we need it to. Doing it under the cloak of the minor works grant is incredibly inefficient. Firstly, it puts these filtration systems in competition with other desperately needed projects within a school, and that is wrong, especially at a time when school budgets are already overstretched. It is putting filters in competition with broken windows, doors, gutters or whatever other items are badly needed. This is at a time when kids are freezing in their classrooms with the windows open. Schools need every support they can get and they do not need to be in a position whereby they are deciding between HEPA air filtration systems and replacing the window.

The work involved is massive. In the last week of term, the Department of Education has dropped one final Christmas present of significant additional administration on the desks of school leaders and principals - and it is not that they have been short of it. They are already handling a substitution crisis and doing contact tracing, which is something I will come back to. The scientific jargon in guidance documents provided by the Department is like another language. An expert in the area might know what to buy in a minute but for principals, this is taking up a significant amount of their time this week and it will do so into next week. There are formulas on square footage, what is necessary and all this kind of stuff. These are principals who are stretched to the pin of their collar, to be honest. The least the Department could have done would have been to provide access to expert advice and support for principals that stated in plain English what they need to buy and where they can buy it. It would be much more sensible and logical to procure these filters centrally and distribute them by need. This has been done by the Department of Education and many others in relation to Covid-related expenses. I do not understand why the Department has not done this. I expect it would be more cost-effective and would certainly involve less administration for schools. The Department has shifted the burden onto school leaders, who are already under incredible pressure.

I wish to raise contact tracing again. As far as I am concerned, it is a public health function and should be led by public health. The Opposition and many school leaders fought for school-specific contact tracing teams. When that happened at the start of the year I believed they were a step forward. They were largely successful. Then in September, out of nowhere and even though we were dealing with new variants, these teams were taken away. In fact, any and all contact tracing was effectively taken away and it is fair to say we are paying the price for that now. When schools ring the HSE, they cannot get through to tracers and cannot get a call back. The new plan for contact tracing again passed the buck onto school leaders. There seems to be very little that the Department feels it or the HSE would be better off doing. Instead it feels it would be better if the principal or the board of management did it.

School communities feel as if they have been taken for fools and asked to believe transmission does not occur in schools. There are some concessions on that now, I think, but ultimately the resources that should follow have not arrived. Let us not operate on the basis schools that are immune but acknowledge that Covid can enter schools and that schools are important. That is the point. It is not that they are inherently safer than anywhere but that they are important. They are crucial. They are crucial to our children and to our society. Thus, we need to throw the kitchen sink at them and do everything we can. We must put in every measure needed to ensure that schools reopen in full in January, that they do so safely and that they can function well.

I would like to make an additional point, as this is my last speech. The Minister of State is aware of the case of Calum Geary. He is entering 2022 still denied access to an education, as is his right, with a sign language interpreter.

I urge the Minister not to allow another year to go by where deaf children like Calum continue to be denied an education. Guím Nollaig shona do gach duine freisin.

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