Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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834. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for vaccine roll-out in special education schools in which there are very vulnerable young children; and if there are plans to also prioritise staff in such settings given that colleagues in adult disabilities have already begun their vaccinations. [14183/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The vaccine protocol devised by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC), is endorsed by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) and signed up to by Government.

The Department of Health have confirmed that those essential to Education are estimated at this time to be in the first one third of the population captured by the Vaccine Allocation Strategy.

My Department has engaged with the Department of Health requesting that consideration is given to school community as the vaccination programme is rolled out in order to accommodate front line school staff (i.e. those working with SEN students) within the vaccination programme at the earliest possible opportunity.