Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I just want to know what "in the coming weeks" means. The Minister will appreciate that principals tell me that they need to plan for September. Even though it is off the front pages of the newspapers and outside the media circle of conversation, they are still dealing with Covid on a daily basis. I spoke to a teacher yesterday who said that approximately one third of the student body had been out because of Covid-related illness. If the Labour Party Parliamentary Party is anything to go by, seeing as we have lost half of our members to Covid this week, I am quite sure that staffs around the country are having a similar problem. Covid is something that the schools are still having to deal with. They need to be able to plan for September. Can I get something a little better than "in the coming weeks"? If I go back to a principal who has asked me to raise this and say "in the coming weeks", they will want to know what that means.

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