Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is great to be back. Comhghairdeas to Senators Moynihan and Ward. Romance is clearly in the air. I wish them a lifetime of happiness with their life partners. It is great to be back - largely because of the vaccination programme. More than 7 million doses have been administered. We have led the way in Europe, it is a huge success story and I thank everybody involved in the administration of the vaccines. There was a lot of scaremongering and criticism but everybody involved has done a tremendous job in Grangegorman in my constituency, Croke Park and DCU. It is not just the vaccination programme. The testing and tracing programme has been phenomenal. Everybody with whom I have engaged has been incredibly professional but also really sensitive because it has been a hugely stressful time so we owe them a huge debt of thanks. I would like the Leader to convey that when she meets with Paul Reid later today on behalf of the Oireachtas women's group. I thank her for taking that initiative.

I would like the Leader to raise the ongoing guidelines for primary school students if they are identified as close contacts. Under the guidelines, if a child is a primary school student and has been in contact with somebody identified as being positive, he or she must restrict his or her movements even if he or she is not showing any symptoms. This is resulting in a massive loss of school attendance for primary school children in my constituency and around the country. It is hugely damaging to their academic education and their social skills. It is creating enormous anxiety for the children, is over-medicalising this situation for very young children and is a cause of major inconvenience and stress for their parents. I know NPHET has agreed to look at it. We have had falling rates of infection four weeks in a row. We were told repeatedly that schools are safe environments and our vaccination levels are at over 90% among 16-year-olds so I ask the Leader to appeal to Paul Reid and NPHET to review that and relax the restrictions.