Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the arrangements that will made to cater for the children in families who have members with serious underlying conditions and who remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 and therefore are forced to keep their children from schools at present; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24602/21]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I wish to ask the Minister about arrangements for children in families where a person has a serious underlying condition and remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 and are therefore forced to keep their children from school. Could she please make a statement on the matter?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has always been guided by public health advice on what is safe in schools and that has been the case from the very beginning. The Chief Medical Officer, CMO, has made it clear in his advices to the Government that schools are places of low transmission, with very little evidence of transmission within schools, and that the majority of infections in children and adolescents occur outside the school setting. This is supported by public health doctors.

Schools have put significant infection prevention control measures in place to reduce the risk of coronavirus being transmitted to or within the school and funding of almost €650 million has been put in place by the Department of Education to fund Covid-19 related measures, including funding for personal protective equipment, PPE, sanitisation, additional cleaning and other such measures.

The HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has issued specific advice about children attending school in the context of Covid-19. This advice covers both children with underlying medical conditions and children living with family members with underlying conditions. For all children, care should continue to be taken to reduce transmission through the infection control measures promoted by the HPSC. The HPSC advises that children with immediate family members, including parents, in both the high-risk and very high-risk categories can return to school and that it is important for the child's overall well-being. This is consistent with public health advice internationally on at-risk family members. The priority is that the household continues to follow all current advice on how to minimise the risk of coronavirus, and for all pupils and staff to continue to adhere to the school's infection control measures.

The Tusla Education Support Service, TESS, continues to engage with students and families identified by schools as needing additional support, and will remain in ongoing contact with school principals to identify students who may need support going forward. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Tusla has adopted a child welfare approach to all engagement with learners and families, being very conscious that many families had been impacted severely by Covid-19.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I hear what the Minister is saying. She and I have had this argument, discussion or whatever she wants to call it, many times over, but despite the mantra the Minister has just read out, the fact remains that there are vulnerable people out there, including teachers. However, today I wish to focus on vulnerable family members who either have been vaccinated and are still vulnerable because of very severe types of blood cancers or who have not been vaccinated yet. Thankfully, a lot of the families to whom I speak have been getting the vaccination. I got it myself in recent days. Things are moving forward and we are all grateful for that but, nevertheless, it remains the fact that there are vulnerable families whose children cannot go to school because if they pick up Covid and bring it home then the likelihood of death spikes. People with blood cancer, for example Jan Rynne, who was mentioned in this House previously, cannot be exposed to Covid because their chances of dying are much more increased than for anybody else. Ms Rynne has had her vaccination but the type of drugs that she is on for the cancer stop the vaccination responding in the same way as it would for the Minister or me. There are other people out there in the same position. What are we going to do to facilitate their children to be able to stay at home and learn? It is not asking a king's ransom or stretching the resources of the State to breaking point, it is asking to look after a minority of very vulnerable families.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I do appreciate that this is an issue Deputy Bríd Smith has raised on an ongoing basis. I also appreciate the difficulties for individual families. I recognise that the issues the Deputy has raised are causing particular difficulties for families. Equally, it is very important that we remember that within the education sector at every step of the way everything that we have sought to do and achieved has been done on foot of the best public health advice available to us. That advice is telling us that children are best served when they are in school. If they are children whose parents or family members are regarded as being particularly high risk, it is still the view of the public health experts that children themselves are best served by returning to school. Deputy Smith graciously acknowledged that significant work has been achieved in terms of the vaccination programme. We have been told that by the end of May or June, all those with underlying conditions will have received their vaccination.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am not going to get into a big argument with the Minister about the conditions in schools but, suffice to say that in Germany, for example, they are providing CO2 monitors in every classroom yet we are barely purchasing them here. I have a friend who is a teacher with a condition that makes her vulnerable and she begged her principal to allow her to teach from home because she feared going back to school. She went back to school and she has been flat on her back with Covid for 30 days. The reality is that no matter what the Minister says, Covid is being transmitted in schools.

I wish to quote Dr. Ronan Glynn, the assistant CMO, who recently told the Ombudsman for Children, in regard to Jan Rynne, that in exceptional circumstances school supports should be provided by the Department to allow children to remain at home. She is just an example. I do not want the whole focus to be on Jan, but she is an important example. The Minister keeps talking about public health advice and how closely she follows it. There is a specific piece of advice. Will she follow it, and will she provide in very exceptional circumstances home supports for children to learn at home? Like I said, it is not going to break the bank. It is a very limited request and it is increasingly applying to fewer and fewer families but, nevertheless, the need remains.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. We have other Deputies waiting.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I want to be very clear about this: where staff have been identified as very high risk, measures have been put in place for all staff to be replaced. Substantial funding has been made available for that and it has been drawn down throughout the country in recognition of the needs of specific staff who are regarded as very high risk. There is no question about staff who are very high risk being asked to return to school. If they were designated as very high risk, accommodation has been made and they have been substituted. Very high risk staff have been replaced within the school system.

Equally, measures have been put in place for children who have been designated as very high risk. That has been the procedure that has been adopted since we returned to school. In fairness, the issue the Deputy raises in general – it is not appropriate for me to comment on a specific case – has been addressed by public health. We have engaged with the public health experts on an ongoing basis and their advice is that children are best served in school.