Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Foley, to the Seanad. I thank her for visiting St. Teresa's Special School in Ballinasloe, which is one of two special schools in the area to confirm a new site. The additional accommodation had been expected in September, but I hope it will be there in January to support the children from that school who are now trying to manage in classrooms in other locations. I would like to see that accelerated.

This debate is about Covid-19 and the new measures coming from the Department of Education. I acknowledge the Minister's commitment and that of the team in the Department to keeping schools open. The incredible principals and teaching staff are doing their best to keep children safe. However, teachers, principals and parents are at their wits' end. There is a crisis.

As the Minister noted today and as the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, noted in the Seanad yesterday, the highest incidence of positive Covid cases is among children aged between nine and 11. This has resulted in NPHET issuing new guidelines on mask wearing. There is a crisis in primary schools at the moment. As the Minister mentioned, when a child tests positive it is up to the parents to contact the school and then the principal contacts the other children in the child's pod. We need more, however. There must be more support on contact tracing which is inadequate given levels of positivity in that age group. How will we manage until the end of December and into January? I know there is stabilisation in other age cohorts, but not in this age cohort. I believe extra supports are needed in this area.

I ask the Minister to clarify if the Department of Education or the HSE will be supplying the antigen test kits. Batches of antigen tests should be sent to schools and the schools should be able to give them to the parents of the children concerned. Currently, as I understand, they are sent solely to parents. I believe schools should have access to the tests. This applies in particular to DEIS schools where we have disadvantaged children so that they can supply them to the families directly.

The Minister also mentioned masks in schools. I welcome that schools can decide on certification for children based on medical or additional needs. Regarding ventilation, I welcome that she mentioned the emergency works grant assistance scheme, but I ask for the timeline for schools applying for it. How many schools have applied for it?

I have spoken to several principals and teachers who were taken aback by the type of language the Department used to communicate the changes. The language in communication needs to reflect that this is a team effort involving the Department of Education, principals and schoolteachers. The type of language used in communication is crucial.I believe that needs to be looked at. More could have been done to alert teachers who were probably panicking when they heard this on the news for the first time. Information could be provided on the immediate timelines for when teachers and principals are notified once a communication is issued publicly.

On the issue of supply panels, in one of the supply panels in my own area, there are three teachers covering 27 schools. I know that an INTO survey was done between 1 November and 16 November on substitute absences. In one particular school, there were 73 absences in a two-week period and they could only fill 39. I welcome the fact that the Minister has introduced measures to allow students in third and fourth year to come forward to provide support. Again, it shows that we just do not have the staff on the ground to support this because children are having to stay at home and parents are having to do the same. Our children with special educational needs are suffering. In respect of the students coming forward to provide cover, if they are living in Limerick or Dublin, are they supporting the schools in those areas? How do we get students in those areas to travel further afield, perhaps 100 km away, if there is a school that is in need of their support?

We are looking at leaving certificate reform in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Many stakeholders and witnesses have appeared before us on the issue. The Minister has stated that she will be having discussions on it. It is most important that the voices of students are heard in terms of what we are planning for this year.

I raised a Commencement matter recently on an issue close to my heart, that is, the DEIS school identification model. In that Commencement matter, I spoke about the fact that the programme for Government provides for an investment of €18 million to look at the timelines for the DEIS school identification model so that we can see what schools are being added. The same should be done in respect of the hot school meals programme that was announced recently by the Minister for Social Protection.