John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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331. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if it is the responsibility of her Department or each individual management board to ensure adequate PPE is supplied to teachers, staff and students of each primary and post-primary school in the State; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31111/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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On 27 July last the Government published the Roadmap for the Full Return to School, along with details of a significant financial package to support the implementation of the measures in the roadmap. The package of supports is expected to cost in excess of €437 million in the 2020/2021 school year and this includes funding for a range of supports being made available to schools includes additional financial supports to provide for additional staffing, management supports, enhanced cleaning, hand hygiene and personal protective equipment costs under the Covid-19 response plans.

Following a centralised procurement process, my Department has established a multi-supplier arrangement from which schools can choose a supplier and select the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Consumables and equipment products that best suits their needs and the requirements under the Roadmap for the Full Return to School:

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This ensures schools have access to, on a value for money basis, a secure supply chain of various PPE and consumables under the Roadmap and their COVID-19 School Response Plan including hand sanitisers,  sanitiser fluids, face coverings/visors, gloves, wipes etc.

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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332. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the plans that have been put in place by her Department to ensure access to online education for all students if the State returns again to a lockdown situation if Covid-19 infection rates continue to rise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31112/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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It remains the Government’s and my Department’s key objective for schools to remain open and to continue to operate as normally as possible.  However, I recognise that despite the best efforts of all stakeholders, there will be situations where individual pupils or groups of pupils, teachers, or possibly entire school communities, are requested by Public Health HSE to self-isolate or restrict their movements because of a case or cases of Covid-19.

There is an absolute necessity for schools to be prepared for these situations, for them to continue to support their pupils and to provide for continuity of learning. This is particularly important in the context of pupils with special educational needs, pupils at risk of educational disadvantage and pupils at risk of early school leaving.

Schools are aware of the need to be agile in providing for continuity of schooling in the future. Contingency planning is required to support continuity of pupils/students’ learning and the use of digital technology where possible will be used to facilitate this. It is important that planning and the adoption of approaches are based on a whole-school approach. Given the fluidity of requirements to meet the various potential scenarios that living with Covid-19 entails, it is important that schools review and adapt their plans over the coming weeks and months as the situation evolves and as the experience of schools in providing for continuity of learning increases.

Extensive guidance and supports have been and continue to be made available by my Department and its support services to support schools to plan for the transition to online and remote learning and this guidance is all available at  

The guidance includes links to a range of materials and supports developed by the Digital Technologies team of the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) such as learning platforms and online tools which can be used to support remote learning. Those resources continue to be available to schools.

In addition, my Department has issued ICT grant funding to schools to address ICT needs including digital devices, communication/learning platforms, software and other ICT solutions to support the provision of remote learning. Additional grant aid will issue during the current school year.

My Department’s Inspectorate is supporting school communities to provide effectively for the learning and progression of all learners during the first term of the 2020/21 school year.

The situation we find ourselves in is evolving all the time.  My Department, in working with the whole of Government, will keep the situation under review and update any advices to schools as required. It is with the work of all our stakeholders together that we will continue to provide the best education for all our pupils/students.